Bleach High
by Scathe
Summary: Rukia is a normal high-school student with her own set of friends, she does well enough in school and doesn’t draw attention to herself. So what happens when a certain orange-haired new kid comes to her school and shakes things up? Well, just wait and see
1. A fresh start

So here's the deal people. Chapter 1, as you may have noticed, is kind of ... well, not here right now. That's because I'm posting an update for everyone who followed this story. By the way, thank you so much for doing so. Here's the thing, Bleach High will be getting an Update and a Rewrite. So for now, the first chapter, which wasn't really needed in the first place as far as I'm concerned, will be this little update to let you know what's going on. You can still enjoy the bulk of the story, from chapter 2 to 7, as I will be leaving that up for you all to read for now while I work on the rewrite.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Wow, plenty of people adding this story to their alerts, and yet … two reviews. C'mon people, if you like it, tell me! It keeps me going!

want to take the time to reply to one of them.

DanceOfTheWhiteMoon: I can say that because I'm mean and evil. Mwahahaha! In all seriousness though, it just helps move the story along. Otherwise, I wouldn't have said anything and the crush wouldn't be there.

Disclaimer: No, Bleach still not mine. If it was, Ichigo would have already pushed Orihime off of the tall dome of Los Noches. can't stand Orihime With that being said, onward to the story!

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It was the week after Matsumoto had revealed to them all that a new student was coming to school. Rukia and Tatsuki stood outside of the school, leaning against Rukia's car and waiting for the morning bell to ring. It wouldn't go off for another hour or so, and they were just waiting for everyone else to show up. Normally Tatsuki and Orihime would be at school together, but Orihime was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, Tatsuki, where's Orihime?" Rukia asked her friend as she went over the answers for her homework. Tatsuki shrugged.

"I went to pick her up, but she said that she was catching a ride with another friend. I didn't really ask much else so I just left."

"Worried?"

"Of course I am. Give me one reason I shouldn't be?" Tatsuki waited for a moment, but Rukia didn't speak. "I mean, we've always ridden to school together. Even before we had cars, I was always there with her on the way to school."

"She'll be fine, she can look after herself."

"That's what I'm worried about … this is Orihime we're talking about."

"True." Rukia sighed and put her things away, turning around to look at her friend. "Look, she'll be ok. You and I both know that. So take a deep breath, and relax."

Tatsuki did exactly that and nodded. "Aren't we supposed to have a new kid this week?"

"That's what Rangiku said wasn't it?"

"Wonder if he really has orange hair." Tatsuki wondered aloud. Rukia didn't answer, she knew that Tatsuki was lost in thought right now and it was best not to disturb her. Rukia put some things away in her car and closed the door when she started walking forward, Tatsuki following behind her.

"You think we should keep waiting outside for the others or just head in?" Rukia asked. Tatsuki looked at her watch and shrugged.

"We could wait at my car and listen to some music … after all; I don't want to be seen near your PoS."

"Hey, don't insult Shirayuki." Rukia said, aiming a kick at her friend, which Tatsuki dodged. Rukia huffed and kept walking, oblivious to the group of people that were walking up behind her.

"I still don't get why you drive that beat up old thing when you could obviously afford something much better."

"I know right!" Matsumoto said from behind them, causing Tatsuki and Rukia to turn around. Renji, Toshiro and Matsumoto calm walking calmly up behind them, they were planning a sneak attack on the two brunettes in front of them but the busty blonde managed to foil their plans. Hitsugaya sighed.

"Matsu, we were going to sneak up on them remember?"

"Oh, yeah … sorry." She said and squeezed Hitsugaya's hand tighter. Renji just scoffed and shook his head. He never could stand when the couple was around him. "Anyway, Tatsuki's right, you obviously could afford a better car."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh please, your father comes to school in a '90 testarossa and you drive that beat up ol' Sentra? What is wrong with you?" Renji finally spoke. Rukia cringed inwardly at the memory. It had been a parent-teacher conference type day and she had asked her father to drive something normal, she had no idea it would be, well … that. It was almost like he was trying to destroy the normal reputation that she had worked hard to build up. Needless to say, she never heard the end of it from her friends and peers, about the car from some of the boys, and about the "hotness" that was her brother from the girls. Her friends never let her live it down.

Coming back to reality, Rukia kicked Renji in the shin and glared at him.

"Don't insult Shirayuki." She threatened him before turning around and walking towards the school, her head held high. "And besides, I told you that my dad had been given that by his father when he was my age, as a gift."

"What kind of family gives Ferrari's as gifts to their teenage kids?" Hitsugaya asked. Rukia sighed. "_My family" _she thought to herself. Shaking herself out of her thoughts she decided to change the subject.

"Isn't the new kid supposed to show up this week?" She asked, veering the subject away from her car. Matsumoto thought for a moment before nodding.

"Oh yeah, that's right. It could be any day this week that he shows up, I'll defiantly be keeping an eye out …" She trailed off a bit as someone walked past them into the school. Rukia caught sight of the kid in a black sweater hoodie wearing dark blue jeans. His hood was down and his vibrant orange hair was on display for everyone. Whispers and gasps followed him as he walked, but he paid them no attention, making his way to the office. He must have been the new guy; nobody had seen him before from the whispers that Rukia could hear. The new kid tapped on the office desk gently and waited for the person behind the desk to turn and face him.

Finally the woman turned with a smile to face Ichigo. So Isane was the unlucky person behind the desk today. Everyone knew what it was like to sit behind the office desk and deal with the people that walked in. Nobody liked it, it wasn't a pleasant experience. The only two people that never really complained about it were Kyoraku-sensei and Ukitake-sensei, although some people said that they preferred Ukitake between the two, Kyoraku was a notorious flirt.

"Can I help you?" Isane asked pleasantly, the smile never leaving her face.

"Uh … I'm Ichigo Kurosaki. I'm new here, and I was told to come to the office for my class list." His voice was a bit rough, but it had a flow to it that made it very distinct. The sound of it caused a few girls to swoon. Isane nodded, he eyes opening up a bit more in recognition.

"Oh, of course Mr. Kurosaki. Give me one moment." She stood up and walked away from the desk and down the hallway towards the offices. The new kid, Ichigo as Rukia heard it, turned around to face the crowds and that's when she first saw him. His face was contorted into a scowl, his brows were furrowed and clenched tight, causing his amber irises to have a sort of piercing effect on the people he looked at. He was leaning back on the desk a bit, showing that his hoodie had been zipped down to reveal the t-shirt he was wearing. It was white but held a sort of broken skull on it. The top of the skull had a fracture running down the top of it connecting with the left eye, while the right eye had a similar fracture running up to its cheek. The mouth was separated from the main part of the skull and was curved a bit with some lines creating separate teeth.

Some of the girls who hadn't caught sight of him gasped and started whispering. Rukia heard one of the whispers and it caused a tick to form on her forehead. "He's almost hotter than that girl's father who showed up for conferences last year, what was his name?"

"Byakuya Shirafune, remember?"

"Oh yeah, he was gorgeous. This new kid is almost at his level." Rukia really, really wanted to slap someone right now. So, she did. Without warning she turned around and hit Renji, causing him to yelp in pain.

"What the hell was that for midget?!" He nearly screamed out. Rukia growled and hit him again.

"_That_ was for calling me midget. And the first one was just because you were closest." She growled out at him. Renji was about to speak when someone walked past them. Rukia's eyes immediately followed and recognized the dark, spiky hair that walked past her group of friends. It was Kaien, her Kaien, sans Miyako. He was heading into the office towards the new kid. Rukia kept herself from daydreaming and paid attention, this moment here would decide how she treated Ichigo "Strawberry" Kurosaki for the rest of his time at her school.

Kaien smiled and leaned across from Ichigo, holding out his hand to the new student.

"Hi," he said casually, "I'm Kaien Shiba. Welcome to the school."

A few whispers went through the crowd, things like "They look like twins!" caught Rukia's attention and caused her to examine the orange haired youth a bit closer. He looked nothing like her Kaien. His face had light scars on it, and he was scowling. Then there was also his hair. She nodded in satisfaction at her assessment before going back to paying attention.

"Look, no offense, but I'm not the type of guy you want to hang around." Ichigo said calmly, looking away from Kaien and ignoring the hand in front of him. A few muffled gasps and "how rude" came through the crowd, mostly from the girls. But none of them had the shock on their faces that Rukia had. Her mouth was open and her eyes were wide. How dare he be so rude to her Kaien! She was a few seconds away from walking over to the Strawberry and having a few words with him when Kaien laughed.

"That's good to know. Thanks for the warning. See you around." And with that, Kaien patted Ichigo on the shoulder and left. Everyone, save the new kid, just stood in disbelief. Did that really just happen? Isane came out from the back offices with a couple of pieces of paper for Ichigo to sign, which he did without complaint and took his schedule and the map of the school and followed Kaien's path out of the office and into the hallways. Shortly afterwards, the first bell rang and everyone was scrambling to get to class now, the encounter between the new kid and Kaien momentarily forgotten.

Rukia wave goodbye to her friends and hurried off to her locker to grab some of her books before hurrying off to her first period Biology. She knew that Urahara-sensei was pretty lenient with tardies, but she still didn't like to be late. Actually, Urahara was pretty laid back when it came to mostly everything, it was more like he was concerned with the state of his hat and fan than he was with anything else. She made it to the door with a few minutes to spare and casually walked in and made her way to the desk that was given to her on her first day. She sat alone, which suited her fine, but part of her wanted a partner to sit next to her.

The bell rang and Rukia, along with the rest of the class with the exception of Urahara, covered their ears.

"GOOOOOODDD MOOOOOORRRNING! Keigo Asano here with your morning announcements! First things FIRST!! All the pretty single girls report to the office immediately, you need to go through a screening process that will-" he was cut off by a loud crashing sound.

"I apologize for my friend, you see, he has Tourette syndrome and can't control the things he says. For those of you that couldn't tell my name is Mizuiro Kojima and I'll be your second announcer every morning. I'm mostly here to keep Keigo in line however."

"Oi, Mizuiro, why do you have to be so mean?! Just because you get all the pretty girls doesn't mean that we all do!" Keigo whined into the PA. Rukia joined in with the chuckling that was going around the class as the two announcers talked back and forth. Such were the mornings at her High School. Pretty much everyone was wondering how exactly these two got away with doing the announcements this way. Unohana-sensei and Ukitake-sensei must have been awfully laid back to allow this. Usually this went on until about …

"Ah, Mr. Kojima, you shouldn't be using your cell phone during school hours." Came a very polite voice. It was Unohana-sensei. You could hear the smile in her tone as she warned Mizuiro to get off the cell phone. She was a frightening woman when she wanted to be, but for the most part she was very beautiful and kind, even acting as the nurse on duty when Isane was busy or took a day off.

"Ah, I'm very sorry Unohana-sensei, please forgive me."

"It's ok, but please don't let me catch you doing it again."

"Yes ma'am." There was a click that sounded through the PA and a whistle that was probably from Keigo.

"Man, that Unohana-sensei is really pretty."

"I can still hear you Mr. Asano." That got a laugh. It didn't take long, well, in Keigo time it didn't take long to get to the actual announcements and get classes started. Urahara pulled out his fan and began to wave it in front of his face.

"My, my, they do like their antics. Anyways, for today's class you can do as you please, just keep the noise down and stay in your seats please." Once Urahara had finished the door to the classroom opened up and in came walking a very orange head of hair. It was that new kid, Ichigo.

"I'm here for Biology with Urahara-sensei." He said, it was almost like his voice was filled with disinterest. Rukia didn't care; she just kept hoping that he wasn't seated next to her.

"You're in the right room. Let me see your schedule." Their teacher didn't even stop fanning himself as he held out his free hand. Ichigo put the schedule in the teachers hand and looked around the class room, taking in as much detail as possible. "Ah, good teachers, good classes. Ok, you can take a seat next to Ms. Shirafune in the back." Urahara folded up his fan and pointed at Rukia. She looked up at the sound of her name and her eyes went wide, she was about to protest but by the time she thought of something to say, the strawberry that had insulted her Kaien was already next to her. And the worst thing was that he was already sitting down.

She didn't bother turning to face him and introduce herself, after all, if he could be rude then so could she. Rukia had opened up a book and started reading, anything to not give the new kid any attention. Unfortunately, it didn't work out too well.

"You're being rude, y'know." He said calmly. Rukia huffed as quietly as she could and looked up from her book at him. He was still scowling, like it was the only facial expression he knew, and his head was being propped up by the large hand he had placed under his chin. And, the one thing about it that could have irritated Rukia the most was exactly what he was doing, he was looking right at her. "Oi, are you mute or something?" He asked, causing a tick to form on her forehead.

"I thought you weren't the sort of person that other people should be around?" She asked calmly, throwing his earlier statement back at him, hoping to win some sort of minor victory. She failed as he grinned.

"I'm not," he said calmly, looking away, the grin still on his face, "I was just pointing out that it's rude to not introduce yourself to someone who's new."

Rukia's mouth was open and her eyes were wide. Did he really just … ouch, that one stung. Score one for the Strawberry. Rukia set her book down and crossed her arms, looking away from him, hoping to salvage her loss.

"I don't see a reason to introduce myself to a person who obviously doesn't want anyone to get close." She said. _"Let's see him counter that one." _She thought confidently.

Ichigo's grin never left his face.

"Regardless if he doesn't want anyone to get close to him, you should still introduce yourself. It's called 'being polite'."

"Like how you were with Kaien?"

"Who?" Rukia's left eye twitched.

"Kaien, the guy who introduced himself to you in the office."

"Oh, him … I was polite."

"No you weren't, you were completely rude!"

"I said "no offense" didn't I?" Rukia stopped at that. He had a point. Stupid strawberry. Great, now he was up 2-0. Rukia didn't talk the rest of class, but Ichigo, the orange-haired idiot, just kept grinning. He knew he'd won, but he wasn't rubbing it in. She was staring at the clock now, counting down the minutes until the bell rang and she could get away from the frustrating strawberry.

Finally, the time came around. 9:05. Five more minutes and the bell would ring. She started packing up her things, completely ignoring the looks from the person next to her. Two minutes left now. She started drumming her fingers on the table impatiently. One more minute.

"Hey." She heard the voice come from next to her; the infernal strawberry was trying to talk to her again. She looked away. Thirty seconds.

A growling noise came from next to her as she started counting down. "Oi!"

Ten seconds.

"I'm talking to you."

5…

"Still being rude huh? That's not very nice."

4…

"C'mon, you can't be silent all your life, its not good for you."

3… Hurry up already!

"What's wrong, afraid that if you look at me you'll be speechless?"

2… how overconfident! Hurry it up time!

"C'mon … I'm Ichigo Kurosaki, who are you?"

1… RING!

Rukia stood up and started walking towards the exit to the class room.

"Oi. Oi!" The yells came from behind her, but she as determined to not turn around as she made her way into the halls. She could only hope that she didn't have any more classes with him. Or anything else to do with him, for that matter.

_**Lunch…**_

"He's insufferable I tell you!"

"I think she's found someone other than Kaien to love."

"What?! No way, that stupid strawberry couldn't win me over if I gave him the manual."

"Yep, definitely in love."

"You guys aren't even listening to me!" It was lunch time now and Rukia was sitting around the tree that her and her friends had claimed during their freshman year. Hitsugaya and Matsumoto sat against the tree, Rangiku's head leaning on her boyfriend's shoulder as she smiled and listened to Rukia rant. Renji was sitting next to them, stealing food from Hitsugaya's lunch, and Tatsuki was sitting next to Orihime, smirking at the short, brunette girl's problems.

It wasn't long after her first period class that she realized that God must be punishing her or something. Every class she was in, that stupid, idiotic strawberry was in as well. And what made it worse, every seat she was in seemed to be vacant, just waiting for him to take over. It wouldn't be so bad if she could concentrate on her class, but every time she would get to doing something, she'd feel him staring at her. A few times he tried to pass her notes. Always the same thing when she got them. "**Hey, what's your name?**" That's all he ever asked. She growled and pulled out yet another note from said strawberry and tore it up.

"I have, like, a million of these damn things! He's so stupid; he doesn't take a freaking hint!"

"I think she's in love Shiro, what about you?" Hitsugaya smirked and nodded.

"I do not love him! How can I love someone as incredibly persistent and stupid as him?! He's just … he's just …"

"He's right behind you."

"Exactly! Wait, huh?"

"Talking about me midget?" Came the raspy yet smooth voice of the strawberry man she'd been sitting next to all day. She slowly stood up and turned around, punching him hard in the gut and causing all the air he was holding in to come out with a loud "ooph".

"Shouldn't have called her that." Renji mumbled to himself before going back to sleep.

"Don't call me midget Strawberry!" She yelled at him. Normally she would be all about keeping a low profile, but something about this orange haired idiot just made her forget her surroundings and let go. Albeit, it wasn't letting go in a good way, but it was still letting go.

"Jesus you hit like a Mac truck! Where are you hiding all that power in that midget body?"

Rukia growled and tried to hit him again, only for him to dodge while smirking.

"That's not very nice short cake."

"Stop making fun of my height you freak!" She kicked him in the shin, hard, pleased with the slight crunching sound that the kick made. Until she felt the pain in her foot that came with her kick and she started hoping around on one foot, just like him.

"What the hell was that for?!"

"First: you won't stop calling me midget, and second: you made fun of my height!"

"I wouldn't be calling you midget if you gave me your name now would I?"

"I'm not going to tell you my name!"

"Well I'm not leaving until you give it to me, so looks like your stuck with me." He crossed his arms and grinned. Rukia was about to hit him again when she heard laughing coming from behind her. She turned around to find everyone, including the normally stoic Toshiro, rolling on the ground in laughter. Rukia growled and gathered up her things before storming away, thinking only one thing to herself: _"Worst. Day. EVER!"_

_**Later that night…**_

Rukia was on her way home, driving through the less crowded streets of her neighborhood as the events of today ran through her head. She decided to recap.

First, new kid came to school, normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but the new kid turned out to be this stupid, insufferable, pain in the ass who wouldn't leave her alone. She never told him her name, and he said he wasn't going to leave her alone until she did. So the only time she'd get away from him was before school started, at her home, at her friends houses, and on her way home. Great, she could live with that. Kinda.

Second, she was going to talk to Kaien today but when she went to find him after school, she walked in on him and Miyako in a very heavy make out session. Her heart managed to crush, and her whole body managed to blush. As if dealing with the strawberry moron wasn't enough, she had to walk in on that. Yeah, it was a bad day.

Rukia parked her car in front of her home and got out, walking up to the front door and entering she took off her shoes and sighed. "How can this day get any worse?" she wondered to herself aloud.

"Ms. Rukia, Master Byakuya would like to speak with you." Came the call of her family butler, Yoshinada.

"Great … that's how."

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A/N: Ok, that's chapter 2! Longest chapter I have ever written to date. I hope you enjoy it. Next chapter, Ichigo gets into a fight! Remember to Review people!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Great turnout for the last chapter, tons of people favoriteing which is always a very good thing to see, means you like it. Yay! But, I still like reviews every now and then, lets me know where I'm going wrong and what's going on in all of your heads. Also, I'd like to say now that the reason this took so long to update is because I am working on another chapter for this story that will take place a bit further down the road and it has consumed most of my time. Still need to think of a way for a certain pairing to finally come together. Ok, now on with the chapter. Oh, and before I forget, I know I said that Byakuya was Rukia's dad and then brother in the last chapter, that's gotta be a bit confusing. He is her Father in this story, just to clear that all up.

Disclaimer: Me no owny teh Bleachy

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Rukia Kuchiki dropped everything within her that was Rukia Shirafune the moment she was standing outside her father's study door. She took a deep breath and stood up straight, like she had been raised and taught, and let her eyes harden in the way that she was taught she should.

"You should be collected at all times, no matter what the circumstances," Her father had told her when she was younger, "if you allow even the smallest bit of emotion come through your gaze, the others in this family will jump on you in a heartbeat."

Inside her head she scoffed. What kind of family punished people for having feelings? _"Oh, right … the Kuchiki's." _She thought dryly. Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Rukia stepped forward and knocked on her father's door.

"Come in." Came the reply. It was a very monotonic voice, as was expected of the great Byakuya Kuchiki. Rukia opened the door and took long, calculated strides into her father's office, closing the door behind her and waiting near his desk. He was busy doing paperwork and she knew it was best to wait for him to finish. He finally set his pen down and looked up at Rukia, his posture ever perfect as his back was straight against his chair.

"Sit down Rukia." He motioned to one of the chairs and she did as he ordered, her posture matching his. "Vice Principle Ukitake called my office this afternoon." He said coolly. She inwardly cringed, wondering what could have happened at her school for her Vice Principle to have called her father. "He said that you and another student were causing quite the commotion at your school. He also said that most of the teachers were getting some laughs out of it, as well as the students. He didn't make it out to be too much of a problem, but asked if I could speak with you to ensure that should this incident happen again, it does not become too much trouble for the staff."

Rukia nodded. "I understand father. I am sorry that you had to be bothered at your work for such a small matter." She said, her tone matching his. Inwardly, she was yelling at the stupid strawberry for causing this whole thing to happen, after all, it was all his fault.

But she got one of the most unexpected reactions from her father when she looked up at him. He had a sort of soft smile on his face.

"Don't worry too much about it Rukia. From what Ukitake said, you have made quite the friend. However," at this, his smile faded and was replaced by the cold look she was used to, "Do not let your antics get too out of hand, I would hate for something to happen to you or this family." Rukia nodded and looked down. Byakuya leaned back in his chair, the soft smile returning on his face. "Now, tell me about your day."

Rukia was once again speechless at this. Her father was acting oddly, she wondered if he was in good health. She shook herself out of her thoughts and relaxed her posture; after all, if Byakuya Kuchiki was going to forget his family blood and wealth, she may as well too.

"It started out fine …"

_**Close to Half and Hour later.**_

Rukia sat up in her room, at her desk, with her journal out and she was writing down today's events. She stopped and looked it over for a moment before nodding.

_Name: Rukia Kuchiki_

_Age: 17_

_Height: Short, and don't I hate it_

_Weight: Slim_

_Eye/Hair color: Violet/Black_

_Problems: I am Rukia Kuchiki, heiress to the Kuchiki noble family and fortune. That's a big one. Normally people would think, "Awesome!!" But not me. I really don't like it. Another big problem is that I'm living a lie. While my name is Rukia Kuchiki, I go by the name of Rukia Shirafune to all my friends and teachers at school. None of them know why, but they will one day. I swore to myself that after graduation, I'd tell them. Hopefully nothing happens to mess that all up. But with that stupid strawberry man in town, I have a bad feeling._

She closed her journal and leaned back in her chair with a sigh. Looking out of her window she absently wondered what her friends were doing right now. Matsumoto and Toshiro were probably on a date; Tatsuki and Orihime were probably eating one of Orihime's gross creations. And Renji was probably sleeping right now. Rukia smiled at the thought of her friends and walked across her room to her bed, already in her sleeping clothes, and turned off the light, laying down to sleep. The last thought she had before falling asleep, instead of her usual wondering about Kaien, she was wondering what Ichigo was doing right now.

XXXxxxXXX

Ichigo Kurosaki walked up the path to his house and opened the front door, his eyes closed and a bored look on his face.

"I'm home." He called out.

"WEEELLLLCCCOOOOOMMMMEEE HOOOOMMMEEE IIIIICCCCHHHHIIIGOOO!!!" Came the shout from his father. Ichigo opened his eyes and looked. He couldn't see his fathers face, but the heels of his shoes were very apparent. They were coming at his face, very quickly. Ichigo growled and stepped to the side, avoiding the kick. But what he didn't see coming was the raised arm that his father had put up as he went whizzing by his son.

Ichigo tried to duck as soon as possible but he only managed to line his forehead up with Isshin's forearm, causing Ichigo to follow his father's path backwards. Ichigo stayed on the ground for a bit, staring up at the ceiling until he heard his father jump up and start mocking him.

"Well done on avoiding my kick, my son, but you should have kept your guard up even after dodging!"

"Shut the hell up old man! Who attacks their son after they've just got home?!" Ichigo shouted, scowling at his father. Isshin, however, just had a very large grin on his face, his hands were resting on his hips and his eyes were closed.

"Now, now my son, you shouldn't ask questions like that. So," He charged Ichigo again, his arms out wide, "HOW WAS YOUR DAY?!"

Ichigo lifted his foot up and kicked his father square in the face, sending him down to the ground and stomping on the back of his dad's head as he growled.

"Oi, Ichi-nii, I think he's unconscious now." Ichigo's sister, Karin, called from the dinner table. Ichigo turned and looked at his raven haired sister and sighed, resting his foot on the back of Isshin's head.

"Yeah, I guess so. How are you Karin?" Ichigo asked. Karin just shrugged and turned back around to face the table. Yuzu came out of the kitchen with a big smile on her face, until she saw her father laying under Ichigo's foot, twitching. A look of worry crossed her face and she moved to stand in front of Ichigo.

"Cut it out and come eat. Are you okay daddy?" She asked. Isshin held up a shaky thumb as Ichigo got off his father and walked into the kitchen, grabbing his plate of food.

"Oi, Yuzu, I'll be eating upstairs."

"But Ichigo …!"

"Thanks for the food!" He was already up stairs and in his room. Downstairs, his family had gathered around the table, with the exception of their father, who was now crying at the poster of a beautiful woman.

"Oh, Masaki, our boy is so rude to his father and his sisters! How ever will I get grandkids if he's to forever act this way?!"

"Shut up goat chin!" Karin shouted, throwing a spoon at her father.

Ichigo sighed and set his food on his desk, tossing his backpack onto the bed and sitting down on his chair. He started to pick at his food, not feeling very hungry tonight. The sounds of Karin and his father arguing from downstairs reached his ears and he set his fork down on the plate of food. Leaning back in his chair he looked up at the ceiling, his hands resting at the back of his head.

He couldn't get her off his mind, the girl whose name he didn't know. Oh sure, he knew she was Ms. Shirafune, but he didn't know her first name. He was so close to finding out when he snuck up on her at lunch, but her friends had to spoil it. He cringed slightly, remembering the powerful fist that she had. He had kept trying to find out her name, going against his better instinct to just stay away from people, and kept failing. Something about her just pulled him in.

She had been on his mind all day long; even now he couldn't get her image out of his head, no matter how hard he tried. She lingered there in his mind, glaring at him like he was the most wretched thing on the planet. He found something strangely attractive about that glare.

Ichigo closed his eyes and growled, shaking his head and getting rid of the image of Ms. Shirafune. He started eating his food and vowed that tomorrow, he would find out her name no matter what the cost.

_**The Next Day…**_

Rukia pulled into the school parking lot, casually looking around for her friends. She noticed Tatsuki and Orihime chatting together next to an empty space and pulled in to park. As she put the parking brake in place she looked around again for any hint of orange, she wasn't taking any chances of running into that stupid, annoying man. Once she was satisfied she got out of her car and walked over to her friends.

"Looking around for your newest love interest?" Tatsuki joked with a smirk. Rukia just growled and glared at her friend.

"Say it again and I'll tell that person how you really feel." Tatsuki went wide eyed.

"You wouldn't."

"Try me." Rukia said with an evil smirk, crossing her arms at her chest, knowing she had won the battle. Tatsuki may be an amazing martial artist, but she wasn't very good at winning these types of battles against Rukia. Tatsuki stammered for a minute before huffing and looking away.

"You win this round." She murmured. Orihime looked between the two girls with eyes wide; apparently the battle was lost on her.

"Tatsuki … what did Rukia win?" She asked before her face lit up. "Oh, wait, did she win tickets to some show or something?! I hope she invites us!" Orihime went off.

Rukia and Tatsuki looked at her oddly. It was a wonder that this girl was second in their class. How so much brain power could be given to her was a wonder. Tatsuki just chuckled and patted her friend on the back.

"You are too cute sometimes Orihime." She said. Rukia looked at Tatsuki strangely this time. _"How out of character," _Rukia thought to herself, _"There must be someone behind this making her act this strange."_ (Queue the moment where all three of them look at the screen to me … and …. Ok, good)

Rukia shook herself out of her thoughts and looked around for the rest of her friends. She saw Renji getting out of his car and slinging his backpack over his shoulder, and noticed Rangiku giggling to herself as she walked towards the group, a very tired Hitsugaya walking behind her. Good, everyone was here, now maybe she would be able to escape the dreaded orange haired idiot if she hid in the group.

"Why are you looking around Rukia? Trying to find Ichigo?" Matsumoto asked her with a slight giggle. Rukia's eye twitched.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" She growled. All she got was a laugh from Tatsuki and Rangiku and a knowing smirk from Hitsugaya. Renji snickered from behind her and she turned to glare at the red head.

"What's so funny Pineapple?" Rukia growled.

"Nothing." Renji said with a smirk. Man of few words wasn't even close to Renji sometimes. He didn't even comment on her calling him pineapple. Rukia huffed and crossed her arms, looking away from her friends.

"Oh c'mon Rukia, we're just teasing you because you are so attracted to him."

"I am not Rangiku. I loathe him; he gets on my nerves and doesn't ever shut up or leave me alone."

"You know, that's the exact same thing I said about Matsumoto." Toshiro said with a smirk. Everyone turned to look at him, except for Rangiku. She knew exactly what had happened.

"Really Shiro? I remember it being a lot more descriptive than that." Renji said. Toshiro blushed slightly at that and cleared his throat.

"Point is, I said the same thing as you about Matsumoto, and look where we ended up … two years together and still going strong." He said with a smile and a squeeze of the blonde's hand. Her smile couldn't have been brighter. Rukia just huffed.

"There are no parallels at all." Rukia said calmly.

"Yeah, because you really have a shot with Kaien." Tatsuki shot at her friend. Rukia cringed slightly.

"Someone say my name?" Rukia's eyes went wide. _"Oh shit."_ She turned around slowly, ignoring the slight snickers from her friends, except Renji, he was scowling.

"Uh … Hey, Kaien." Rukia said as calmly as she could with a slight wave.

"Hey Rukia, Toshiro, Renji, Tatsuki … how you all doing?"

"We're good." They all replied together. Rukia was willing herself to not look down and blush.

"So, Rukia, can I talk to you for a minute?" There was a chorus of quiet "ooh's" that came from behind her that she glared at.

"Sure." He walked off and she followed, doing her best not to stumble and trip and trying to clear her head so she wouldn't sound like a bumbling idiot when she talked to him. He stopped near some benches and took a seat, smiling and motioning for her to do the same. Once she had sat, she turned to look at him.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

"My family is having a small get together, kind of like a barbeque. Kukaku asked me to invite you. Do you want to come?" Rukia was speechless, try as hard as she may to speak or even her earlier efforts to not sound too stupid; she couldn't find any sort of will to speak up. She stared at him with wide eyes, wondering if this could be the place where her dreams finally came true. After a moment she just nodded.

"I-I'd love to come." She said with a smile. Kaien grinned and patted her on the head.

"Great! I'll let Kukaku know, she'll be thrilled. It's a couple of weeks from now; it usually takes a while for Ganju to get his lazy ass out here." Rukia chuckled. She had heard the stories of Kaien's younger brother, Ganju. It was amazing they hadn't kicked him out of the family.

"I'll be there." She said with a smile. Kaien nodded and got up, heading off to the school. Rukia sat on the bench for a little while until she heard the morning bell. Rukia hurried off the entrance, avoiding the questions of her friends for the moment and charged down the hall to her first class. She opened the door and casually walked to her seat, avoiding the gaze of Urahara.

She set her things down next to her seat and took a deep breath. That's when she heard the most annoying sound in the world. And she wasn't talking about the noise that Harry and Lloyd made in Dumb and Dumber. No, this was worse.

"You alright midget? You look worn out."

Rukia's eye twitched. She had hoped that the other day had all been a bad dream. But him talking now had confirmed it had happened. And she was going to be sitting next to this insufferable person for the rest of the school year. She turned slowly to look up at him. He was looking down at her, with the same scowl from yesterday. She scowled at him and growled to herself. Even if he had just called her midget she wasn't going to make a scene of bashing his face in with one of the nearby magnifiers, not in class. She'd wait until lunch.

"I'm fine. And _don't _call me midget." She said in the most scathing voice she could muster. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see his stupid smirk.

"That's good, wouldn't want you dying before I got to learn your name. That would be a shame."

"Well then you better stop talking to me, lest your annoying voice kill me before my active nature does."

"Oh, Midget, you hurt me." He mocked pain and leaned back in his seat, putting one hand on his forehead and the other over his heart. She scoffed and shook her head, looking away.

"What did I tell you about calling me midget?"

"Well I can't call you anything else. There's midget and shortcake, because Ms. Shirafune doesn't sound good. Especially not on you." Rukia looked up at in astonishment. Something about the way he said that made it seem as if he knew who she really was. Rukia panicked for a moment. Then came the blaring "bing" of PA clicking on and she let out a relieved sigh, covering her ears. But it wasn't Keigo and Mizuiro today. It was Vice-Principal Ukitake.

"Good morning students. Keigo and Mizuiro are out sick today, seems they caught something at a gathering last night and couldn't make it today. Few announcements before we start classes. First things first, Club Day is coming up, and Club Leaders need to start working on their booths for this year. Secondly, our very own Basketball and Baseball teams are starting their tryouts this year. If anyone has questions, see Yoruichi-sensei, she'll be answering any questions you have"

Ukitake rambled off a few more things before turning it over to the teachers. Rukia's class was abuzz with people either talking about the sports teams or what to do for their clubs. Rukia was coming up with designs she could draw for the art clubs banner when she heard the annoying scoff from next to her.

"Listen to these people. I can't believe people would join stupid clubs." Ichigo growled out. Rukia huffed.

"Clubs are a fun way to spend time. You should join one." Rukia said.

"Nah, not unless they have a martial arts club." He said. Rukia grinned, she'd hand him over to Tatsuki. It was almost perfect.

"Actually, there is one. Some of the best Martial Artists in the city."

"Really now? I'll have to test that out." His tone sounded almost interested. She looked over at him and there was a hint of a grin on his face before he shook his head. "Which club are you in?"

"Art Club."

"That's cool." He said casually before turning to look at the front of the class. Urahara had gotten the people to calm down and was now going off about cellular structure. But neither Rukia nor Ichigo were taking notes. Rukia was sketching some patters on her notebook, and Ichigo was thinking about the fights he could get from the Martial Arts club.

_**Lunch…**_

The rest of the day had gone by surprisingly without incident. Rukia hadn't gotten an annoying message from Ichigo asking for her name. She didn't think much of it, she enjoyed the solitude she got. It wasn't until lunch rolled around and she was at her locker that she noticed the orange haired idiot in the center of a large group of people that were widely known as vagrants and delinquents. Ichigo was putting a few things away in his locker which was down a ways from Rukia's, and she could catch snippets of the conversation that was going on.

"… Don't like the look of you. What, you think you're some sort of tough guy?"

"I don't want trouble." Ichigo said calmly, ignoring the people around him.

"Oh, you don't want trouble eh?! Ha-ha! Who do you think you are?!"

"Someone who could hurt you all very easily. Look, just turn around and walk away, I don't want to get into a fight."

"I hate your attitude!" Said a thug from behind him. Ichigo sighed and moved his head out of the way just in time to avoid the punch, stepping to the side and watching as the thugs arm disappeared into Ichigo's locker. Ichigo was fast, so fast that it was hard for Rukia to follow his movements. But she could see and hear things clearly.

After the thug had punched into Ichigo's locker, the strawberry man had slammed the door to his locker on the thug's arm, causing a loud crunching sound to sound through the hall as the thug's arm broke. The next person was up and attacking Ichigo from behind again, but when he punched, the orange haired kid wasn't there to take the hit, instead the punch flew into his companion who was still stuck in Ichigo's locker, hitting him square in the jaw. Ichigo spun and kicked the second thug hard in the back of his legs, sending him to the ground.

Another one charged from Ichigo's right and aimed a kick at the back of his head. Ichigo growled and ducked.

"What is it with you idiots and aiming for the back of my head?!" He shouted out, standing up and turning to face the guy who attacked him, punching him square in the jaw with as much force as he could muster. A sickening crunch sounded throughout the hall and now two of the people who had attacked Ichigo were laying on the ground in pain. They were squirming quite a bit, holding whatever may be broken and hurting. The remaining 4 people that weren't injured looked at Ichigo, who was now standing in a ready position and facing them, with fear in the eyes and expressions.

"Screw this!" One of them shouted and three of them took off.

"Guys, hey, where are you going?!" The last one standing shouted. He growled and helped his two wounded friends up, turning to Ichigo and yelling, "You'll pay for this!" And the three of them took off. Rukia stood at her locker and watched the men walk past her to the nurse's office before looking back at Ichigo. He had relaxed, that much was certain, but he looked like there was something wrong with him. His fists were still clenched and he was looking down at the ground.

Rukia thought about going over to him but before she could take a step forward, he wheeled around and stormed off down the hall. She stood at her locker, watching him walk into the distance, wondering what she should do.

She came to the conclusion that there was nothing she could do right now and went to go find her friends.

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A/N: There you go, chapter 3! I hope you guys enjoy it. Hopefully the fight was good; I get nervous writing things like that. Anywho, hope you like it, and the next chapter will be a continuation of the day, after all I can't just end it after a fight now can I? He has to get in trouble … I'm evil :D. And don't forget to review!


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: HELLO ALL! I'm so sorry that I'm late uploading this chapter; it took me a while to do. First, let me give you a little rundown:

I've been uploading stories and reading them all on a laptop on account of the fact that my computer has been packed up and in storage while we moved. I went from California to Tennessee, we got into the house maybe 2 months ago, and we're still unpacking things. So I've been a bit busy with that and I just got my computer back, so I had to make sure it was running properly and all that wonderful stuff.

As a writer, my mind tend to work 2 miles a second, ideas coming from all over the place and no filter to stop them. So while I wasn't updating this, I was working on things for other stories that I have in the works. And let me tell you, they take up a lot more time then I thought they would.

I'm still working on the up and coming chapter for this story, but I am getting it done. Still need to transfer it off of my laptop and onto my actual computer. But I have a feeling it will be done shortly!

School. Has. Been. A. Pain!! That's to say, I'm not in it, but I've been trying to get in. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done. I've had to jump through so many hoops that I'm starting feel like a circus animal.

Ok, that's about it. Also, I wanted to answer a review real quick.

Fafacute: I'm glad you like it, that's always a bonus. And I promise to add as many IchiRuki moments as possible from here on in, hopefully I can get some sort of love blooming between the two in a 2 week time frame. And I'll explain all about Rukia's mom when the time comes, at the moment, it's a mystery. Why? Because I'm evil.

Anyway, on with the story!

Still no owney teh Bleachey

* * *

Rukia walked down the hallway to the quad, moving in slow, short strides. The memory of Ichigo's fight earlier was still playing on repeat in her head. The sound of bones crunching still rang in her mind. The memory was acting on overdrive and Rukia was trying to memorize every detail. He was so different than the annoying kid that she sat next to in class all day. She kept asking herself if it was truly him as she made her way slowly down the hall. Her book was clutched tight against her chest, her knuckles were white. As she replayed the memory in her head for the countless time she caught something she hadn't before. When Ichigo had shouted at the thugs, there was a hint of his voice becoming a bit higher pitched, something that seemed more cruel and twisted than his normal tone, and there was a look in his eyes that gave off an aura of violence and aggression. She could have sworn she caught sight of a small, sadistic grin on his face as he fought.

It was like in that brief moment, he had become another person. Sure she had only known the moron for a day, but this sudden change struck her hard. She didn't know why, but there was just something in his eyes that terrified her. She shook it off and made her way to her friends, who were occupying their normal spot at the tree. Rangiku and Toshiro were sitting against the trunk, their hands held together like always. Toshiro was looking off to the side at the building and Rangiku was talking rather animatedly. Tatsuki and Orihime sat next to one another, listening to their friend with a smile. Renji was leaning against the tree as well, next to Toshiro. The pineapple head was the only one covered completely in shade as he leaned back, his arms behind his head and his eyes closed. The lazy dumbass was sleeping again. Rukia sat in her spot across from Tatsuki and Orihime, pulling her lunch out of her bag slowly.

"C'mon 'Hime, you have to come with me!" Rangiku said with a slight chirpy sound in her voice. Rukia chuckled to herself, knowing what the tone meant: Matsumoto was going shopping. Rukia shook her head and started picking away at the Mozzarella sticks she brought with her. Orihime started shaking her head.

"No, I can't go. I have to go cheer on Tatsuki at her tournament this weekend."

"You have a tournament too?" Toshiro asked, looking at Tatsuki with interest. She nodded and took a drink of her water. "Where at?"

"Oderschvank Community Center."

"Hmm … that's where my match is too. Saturday or Sunday?"

"Both days actually. Tournament lasts all weekend. I'll be lucky to get enough sleep to come back to this hell hole." Tatsuki said with a grunt. She shook her head and went back to drinking her water before asking Toshiro. "So, what are you going there for?"

"Kendo tournament."

"They host those there?" Toshiro nodded and Tatsuki whistled. "What's your ranking?"

Toshiro was silent for a moment, looking away at the building again before speaking quietly. "One."

Orihime, Tatsuki and Rukia went wide eyed. Toshiro never spoke about his Kendo before, in fact, none of them knew that he had ever done it. This revelation that they were sitting with a number one ranked fighter was shocking to them all. Tatsuki chuckled.

"Is that the state ranking or the National ranking?"

"National. Took me three years to get it." This caused their jaws to slacken a bit more. Toshiro never talked about what he did after school and with the revelation that sitting before them was the number one Kendo champion in the nation, well … they were all a bit stunned. Only Renji and Matsumoto looked at them like they were crazy.

"What, you didn't know that?" Renji asked. Tatsuki shook her head.

"I've never followed the Kendo championships before. I think I'm going to keep a closer eye on them now." Hitsugaya grinned; it was a grin of pleasure and cockiness. Something about it reminded Rukia of Ichigo and she shivered. She hoped nobody saw it, but what kind of day would it be if she was lucky at least once.

"What's the matter Rukia?" Orihime asked. "You just shivered. Are you cold?" All eyes were on the small brunette now. She laughed awkwardly and waved her hand.

"I'm fine, I'm fine."

"_I didn't just witness a fight in the hallway that involved the annoying strawberry headed idiot that I've been ranting about for the past day and got a brief glimpse of another side of him. Nope, not at all." _ She thought to herself. It didn't look like anyone was buying it though. Orihime was about to ask what was really wrong when Matsumoto cut her off. Rukia breathed a sigh of relief for the moment, the woman's timing couldn't have been better. That is until she heard the question.

"What did Kaien want to talk to you about this morning?" The strawberry blonde asked. Rukia swore silently to herself. She had forgotten, and now the memory was rising up to be the first thing in her head. She had been so occupied with Ichigo that she had forgotten about Kaien.

"Uh … he invited me to his family get together." Rukia said casually, looking down at the grass beneath her. It was so interesting at that moment, being so green and wavy in the wind. It looked pretty. Matsumoto was cheering.

"You may finally be able to tell him how you feel." Tatsuki said, but then she grinned and added, "If a certain other student hasn't already stolen your heart from Kaien."

"Oh Rukia you have to go shopping with me this weekend! We can pick something out together!" Matsumoto was listing off things that would look good for a picnic, Rukia was scowling though. It was mentioned, again, that she may be in love with Ichigo the Moron, Ichigo the Violent, Ichigo the Annoying, Ichigo the Incredibly Good Looking. _"Wait, what?!" _She slapped herself gently and glared at Tatsuki who, along with Toshiro, was giving her a very knowing look. She wasn't glaring for long however, as the next thing she knew she was lifted up off the ground and was being thrown around by Matsumoto in what the cheerful woman called "dancing".

"Matsu, calm down. You're going to hurt one of us if you keep going." Toshiro said calmly. He was used to this, it was a given really, after spending so much time with her. She stopped dancing and turned to her boyfriend, pouting playfully.

"But Shiro! This is a cause for celebration! And what other way to celebrate than dancing?!" She said. It was incredibly obvious that Rangiku was doing her best to persuade him that she was right. However, this wasn't her room in her house. He was outdoors with his friends, and her presence couldn't overwhelm him. He had a bit of control over his actions now.

"Matsu, think about it. You fling Rukia around like that and you hurt her, that will limit your shopping choices for this weekend, and that wouldn't be any good."

"But-"

"And if Rukia gets hurled into Tatsuki or myself and we get injured, we'll miss our tournaments, and if that happens, you'll never hear the end of it."

"Shiro, I-"

"Don't hurt your shopping partner Matsu." He said with a smirk, knowing he had her. She pouted again and whimpered ever so silently. She was still trying to figure out a way to get her way. Toshiro sighed.

"You can dance with her after school in the parking lot … just be very careful." Shiro said. Renji snickered from next to the white haired boy and Matsumoto cheered, hugging him into her chest. "Can't … breathe" came the muffled voice of the poor white haired boy. Matsumoto only stopped when she saw Hitsugaya's arms flailing about.

"Thank you Shiro!" Was all she said before she started talking to Rukia about the shopping trip, listing off places to go shop and things to buy. It was amazing how endless her list seemed. Anyone who had ever known Matsumoto would know that her parents worked hard for what they had. They didn't have a lot but they had enough to make it. Rukia constantly wondered how she was able to buy so much stuff with the amount of money her parents had. It was like her and Rukia were similar, just trying to hide their backgrounds and their names.

Shaking that thought off Rukia phased out again. She wasn't listening to Matsumoto anymore, her mind drifted to Ichigo. Sure she had only known him for a day, but there was something about him that sent shivers down her spine and caused her mind and heart to race. She couldn't explain it really. But, the best she could do was call it annoyance. There was no such thing as "love at first sight".

"_Well then how do you explain Kaien?"_ That annoying little voice in the back of her mind retorted. She growled and ignored it. Even if it was true, this was different. Ichigo wasn't her Kaien, nowhere close to it. Ichigo was completely different, in his own idiotic way. She got the urge to turn her head and when she did her eyes went wide. Walking through the quad was Ichigo, being escorted by Ukitake and Unohana.

"Oh shit." She said to herself, snapping all of her friends out of their thoughts to look at Rukia. She never swore, never, unless she was stunned beyond belief, or had just gotten hurt really bad. Looking around they saw exactly what she did.

"What did he do to deserve an escort from both of them?" Asked Renji, watching the orange haired boy walk casually with his hands in his pockets. Rukia stood up and gathered her things together, decided to tail the trio to wherever they may go.

"Rukia, where are you …?"

"I'll catch up with you guys later!" She said over her shoulder and started to follow the Principle, Vice-Principle and the orange headed moron. She stayed as quiet and out of the way as possible, following them down the halls and into Unohana's office. Kiyone was sitting behind the desk today.

"Hey Rukia, what's up?" Kiyone asked kindly. She was a good person, like her sister, even if she was a little energetic around Ukitake. Although her energy seemed to mostly come out when Sentaro was around. Usually the two were always fighting; it was all really an act though. The two of them cared for each other a great deal, even if they had a rivalry for the attention of Ukitake.

"Hey Kiyone. Just wanted to get back and talk to Ukitake-sensei about a few things."

"He's in a meeting at the moment; I'll let him know you dropped by though." Kiyone smiled and wrote something down on a piece of paper. Rukia smiled.

"Kiyone, I know he's in a meeting with Unohana-sensei and another student. That other student is what I need to see him about." Kiyone looked up at Rukia and smiled, nodding.

"Ok, their in Unohana-san's office. Should I let them know you're coming?" Rukia shook her head and thanked Kiyone before moving into the back office. She could hear voices coming from behind the door. The calm, smooth voice that was Unohana and the friendly voice that was Ukitake were talking, completing each others sentences and carrying on when the other finished. They worked perfectly together, almost feeding off of one another.

"I understand that you were fighting in self defense Kurosaki-san, but did you have to rough them up so bad?" Said Ukitake.

"They'll have to be sent to the hospital, I can't treat them here, not even with Isane's help." Unohana spoke calmly. Ichigo was silent.

"We'll also have to suspend you for fighting. After what you did to those kids, we could do a lot worse, but we know about your past schools. And remember, next time someone attacks you, don't fight back."

"He didn't fight back though." Rukia said from the other side of the door, then she quickly covered her mouth. Silence was the only thing that could be heard for a few moments before Rukia heard a chuckle, probably Ukitake. Unohana-sensei rarely chuckled, and rarely did it sound masculine.

"Come in Ms. Shirafune. Apparently you have something to say." Unohana-sensei said from behind the door. Rukia slowly opened the door and looked in nervously. She had never been in Unohana-sensei's office; she had always tried to avoid it. After all, nobody wants to be in this place, and Rukia definitely didn't want to be in here. She'd never hear the end of it from her father if she did. Slowly she walked into the spacious room. It was white, almost like a hospital office, and the walls were rather bare. A window was behind Unohana's desk, showing the gardens that she personally tended and allowed the biology class to use when needed. Above and around the window were numerous diplomas that Unohana had earned. Rukia could make out a medical degree as well as a teaching doctorate. She had no idea Unohana was so accomplished, but here it was in front of her.

Rukia stood in awe for a moment before Ukitake snapped her out of her thoughts.

"You had something to say, Ms. Shirafune?"

Rukia looked at Ukitake-sensei, trying to remember exactly what she had been trying to say earlier.

"Oh, right. You see, Ichigo here didn't fight back against the thugs that attacked him. In fact, he didn't even touch them; they all did it to themselves."

"And how would you know this Ms. Shirafune?" Unohana asked.

"The confrontation took place a little ways away from my locker. I saw everything. It was purely self defense, so please, don't suspend Ichigo. He didn't do anything." Rukia responded without hesitation. Unohana and Ukitake smiled at each other for a moment before nodding.

"Thank you Ms. Shirafune. Now that we know everything, you can both leave. Class will be starting soon. Mr. Kurosaki will remain here without suspension and the students who attacked him will be dealt with." Ukitake said and stood up, walking the two of them to the door.

"Ms. Shirafune." Unohana-sensei called quietly. Rukia turned around to face the principal.

"Yes Unohana-sensei?"

"I would like to remind you that eavesdropping is a nasty habit. You can ask your father about the repercussions sometime." Rukia's eyes went wide and she could have sworn she saw Unohana-sensei wink imperceptibly. "That is all."

"Thank you Unohana-sensei." Rukia bowed before leaving the office, the door shutting behind her.

Ukitake went and took a seat next to Unohana, a smile on his face as they looked at each other a moment before they both laughed to themselves.

"She tries so very hard to keep it a secret." Ukitake said.

"That she does. But I can understand, in her position and with her past, it's perfectly normal for her to react how she does." Unohana replied. Ukitake just nodded and took a deep breath.

"It's hard to pretend not to know."

"It is, but we must both try." Unohana said, her smile growing a bit. Ukitake nodded and reached over to gently take her hand in his.

"Those two suit each other don't they?" Ukitake said.

"They really do. He'll need her to watch after him and keep him grounded, and she'll need him to keep her grounded." Unohana said with a nod, squeezing Ukitake's frail hand gently. "How are you doing? Any more attacks?"

Ukitake shook his head. "They've stopped for the time being."

"That's good." Unohana sighed a bit and reached forward to grab a pen. "I should be getting to work. You need to go take your medicine."

"I feel fine, I need to get some work done myself."

"Juushiro," Unohana said gently, "you need to take the medicine to help you get better."

"I'll be fine Retsu. I have the best Doctor in the state sitting right across the hall from me if anything happens." Ukitake stood up and walked to the door. Unohana sighed, she hated putting on her serious face when it came to Ukitake, but it needed to be done.

"Juushiro, take the medicine." She said, all traces of the soft, gentle voice she always used gone as she glared at Ukitake.

"Y-yes, Unohana-san." He stuttered out and hurriedly left her office. She grinned to herself. Nobody was immune to her serious voice; it's why she wanted to become a principal. She pulled a piece of paper in front of her and got to work.

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A/N: Ok, that's this chapter, finally done! I'M SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG!!! Please forgive me! I hope you all enjoy it.

Question of the day time! I've always wondered this: How do you hear the character's voices when you read fan fiction? And by that, I mean do you hear it in their Japanese dubs or in the English dubs? Review to answer!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Hello to you all once again! Ok, so thank you all for favoriting and adding me to story alerts, it means a lot. But … *sigh* we're going to have to have the review conversation again aren't we? I really don't want to have this conversation, I like you guys, a lot, you like my story and because of that, I like you. But it won't kill you to click the little green button at the bottom of the page and tell me what you think. Please? It would mean a lot to me.

Anywho, now on to the story!

Disclaimer: Let me check on the stuff I own … hmm … games, consoles, computer … nope, no Bleach.

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Ichigo and Rukia walked down the hallway side by side. Ichigo's hands were in his pockets, his scowl was even more apparent on his face as he looked straight ahead. Rukia's hands were at her sides, gripping the hem of her shirt. They walked, not really going anywhere, just walking, side by side, not saying anything. Finally one of them broke the silence.

"Why did you defend me?" Ichigo asked quietly. Rukia looked up at him for a moment, the question running through her mind. Why did she defend him exactly? She couldn't come up with an answer right away, so she decided to stall for as long as she could.

"What do you mean?" She asked, looking away from Ichigo. Something about the look on his face made her feel uncomfortable. It wasn't the scowl, it was something in his eyes that took the place of the scowl he normally had. Something was wrong, she could see it, but she couldn't place what.

"Back in the Principal's office, why did you defend me? I mean, you hate me after all don't you?"

"Where did you get the impression that I hated you from?" Rukia asked, a bit offended. She didn't hate him, she didn't even loathe him. And that shocked her a bit. She just found him annoying, and strangely appealing. She wondered why she didn't hate him; especially after all he managed to do in two days. Insult Kaien, check. Insult her, check. Annoy her ceaselessly, check. That's grounds enough for at least disliking a person. But she didn't even dislike him. She wondered why. Ichigo's scoff brought her out of her thoughts.

"Haven't you been ranting to your friends about how much you 'hate that stupid strawberry'?" He asked, a soft grin on his face when he quoted her. Rukia looked down at the ground for a moment, quiet as they walked before finally speaking.

"I don't hate you. I don't know why I don't hate you, I should. I should hold the deepest loathing for you after all the annoying things you've done and after insulting Kaien and myself. But I don't." She said quietly. Ichigo's grin just widened.

"It's because I'm irresistible isn't it?"

"Pfft, yeah right. You're annoying, you never give up, you bother me all the damn time and you never stop talking. You're always scowling and you're never nice. There's also the whole loner thing that I'll never get. You shove people away from you constantly, and yet you have the balls to think you're irresistible?!" She said with a scoff, looking up at him, only to find him looking down at her. Their eyes met, but neither looked away. They stopped walking and turned to face one another, not looking away, their eyes caught not in a glare of passion, but in a glare of argument and annoyance. A silent battle was waging between the two, and in this battle, only they existed and they were oblivious to those around them. Specifically, a group of people walking up to them from down the hall.

Finally, without either of them coming up with anything to say, they both huffed and turned away from each other at the same time, their eyes closed and their arms crossed at their chest. Rukia's face softened, but her posture didn't. She kept thinking about his eyes and their perfect amber color as he stared at her. It couldn't have been at any other moment that she heard the second most annoying thing possible: Rangiku giggling. Her expression hardened again into a scowl, growling softly she slowly opened her eyes to see her friends walking her way.

She could hear the conversation in her head now.

"_Oh you two are so cute together! Just confess already! Blah blah blah!"_

Almost as if without missing a beat, Rangiku said _exactly_ what Rukia thought she would.

"Oh my! You two really are just too cute, when will we hear wedding bells?" It wouldn't have been so bad had Toshiro and Tatsuki not been grinning like evil people at the two of them. Rukia and Ichigo turned to face the group and spoke together.

"Would you stop with that?! We are not in love!" They shouted. Then they glared at each other again before both throwing their arms up in the air in exasperation and walking away. Rangiku and Orihime giggled.

"Matching expressions, matching movements, they really are in synch." Toshiro said, his grin never fading. Most of the group turned to look at him and he shrugged. "What? I can't be analytical and into relationship's too? Granted I'm not as into it as some people." With that he turned to look at Matsumoto and she just smiled down at him.

They chatted amongst themselves for a moment as they watched Ichigo and Rukia leave. It took all their willpower to not shout "Just hold her hand already" as they watched the two walk away.

And it was taking all of Ichigo's willpower to not actually do it. Rukia was right about him pushing people away. But the more time he spent near the midget, the more he was compelled to pull her closer to him, physically and emotionally. She was affecting him, and it was starting to really bother him. She never left his mind. Ok, sure, he had only known her for a day, but during that day, something had happened to him and he couldn't figure out what. The sight her perfect violet eyes was all he could see in his head as they walked down the hallway together. He looked down at her, his scowl fading a bit and a pensive look taking its place.

"You never answered my question." He said to her. She turned to look up at him, his eyes capturing hers as they stared at one another for a moment before she turned away.

"What question?"

"Why did you defend me in the Principal's office?" He asked again. He never stopped looking down at her, hoping she'd turn and stare back at him with her wonderful eyes.

"I … I don't know." Rukia answered. The bell rang signaling lunch was over and she took off down the hall without saying anything, momentarily forgetting that it wouldn't matter if she got away from him for the moment, he was going to end up right next to her again.

XxxXXXxxX

Rukia was alone now. School was over and she was sitting in her car driving home. The day's events were passing through her mind quickly. From the fight to the principal's office to her and Ichigo's conversation in the hallway, everything was playing over in perfect clarity. She pulled Shirayuki off to the side and parked, resting her forehead against the steering wheel and closing her eyes. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes to steady herself.

"_Why did you defend me in the principal's office?"_

The question was running through her mind all day. It had started after their talk, but Rukia was determined to not let it get to her. Something about Ichigo just caused her to let go of everything and be free. She wanted desperately to find out what it was about him that just caused her to forget. Sure he may be annoying, and frustrating and a little stupid from time to time, and it all got under her skin. It was like he had more flaws than perks. And yet, here she was, thinking about him. Normally she'd be thinking about Kaien right now, visions of the two of them walking together, hand in hand and just enjoying the company. But now, Kaien's place was taken in favor of Ichigo. She let out a frustrated yell within the confines of her car and sat rigidly against her seat.

Relaxing slowly she looked around at the people wandering at the park. They all looked so casual and happy. A soft smile crossed Rukia's face as she looked at all the couples holding hands and walking along the paths or sitting in the shade and just relaxing. They didn't look like they were talking, just enjoying each others company. All of them looked so peaceful. Rukia rolled down her windows to let some fresh air into the car and took a deep breath when she heard what sounded like an old lady yelling. Turning to look for where the sound was coming from, she found it without too much trouble. Sitting on the bench, not far from Shirayuki, was an old couple, facing each other. The old woman had dark hair that looked like it was slowly lightening up, and was wearing a loose fitting green t-shirt and some sweat pants. Her arms were waving around in the air as she yelled at the man in front of her.

The man, who was scowling and glaring at the woman, started to yell back at her and their conversations got muddled together as they yelled at the same time. Taking a look around, Rukia noticed that nobody else was bothered by the two elders having quite the argument. They all seemed to react like it was perfectly natural. Finally the old woman crossed her arms and huffed, turning away from the man. Rukia caught sight of her face and her eyes went wide. She had some light wrinkles around her eyes and frown lines around her mouth, but the overall beauty that was probably much more radiant when she was younger was still very apparent. Her eyes opened slowly and Rukia caught sight of the brilliant blue eyes that didn't seem to dim in all her years. She spoke and her voice wrung clearly to Rukia.

"I don't even know why I keep you around if all you do is make fun of me." Her voice was clear, not a hint of age causing it to rasp. She sounded almost like an angel speaking. The man leaned over her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her, a grin on his face and his brown eyes lighting up significantly.

"It's my charm; you know you can't resist it." He said to her, his blonde hair shining brightly in the sun. Rukia squinted a bit at the couple. They seemed familiar somehow. The old woman scoffed and turned back to face him.

"Yeah right, mighty confident aren't you?"

"You have no idea." He said, his grin growing wider. Rukia could tell the old woman was smiling a bit as she leaned in and kissed him.

"I may have some idea." She said slyly. They chuckled to each other before getting up and walking out of the park. Rukia could see now that the woman was significantly shorter than her husband, coming up to about his elbow. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"C'mon, lets get something to eat."

"Can't you think of anything besides eating to do?"

"I can think of a couple." He said with a grin before turning and walking down the sidewalk, their backs facing Rukia.

"Make sure you keep up short fry." The old man said, his wife elbowing him in the side gently before keeping close to him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Don't call me short." She said so softly that Rukia could barely hear it. She sat in her car and blinked, watching the couple walk away from her for a while longer. Something about them seemed oddly familiar. Weren't they just fighting a minute ago? And now, here they were, walking close together as if nothing had happened. It was strange. But if they were bipolar, it was none of Rukia's business. Starting her car up, Rukia pulled out into the street and started her drive home all over again, Ichigo temporarily gone from her mind.

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A/N: I'm so sorry this is so late. Took me a while to write it and come up with the direction I wanted to go. And it's short too. I need to start writing longer stories. Well, here's this chapter. Press the little green button at the bottom of the page and tell me what you think. Please. Or I'll super glue Yachiru to your shoulders and keep you away from all the candy shops in the world. :D


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: No AN for this chapter. Just to say hi, I'm back, review please. :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach … 423 was absolute shit, why does Kubo have to be anti-climactic? AND WHY DOES HE HAVE TO DANGLE ICHIRUKI GOODNESS RIGHT IN FRONT OF US ALL AND THEN NOT DELIVER? GAHHHH!

EDIT: Hey, figured I'd give you all an update as to things that are happening. The double-u key on my keyboard has broken and doesn't do anything anymore, notice that I'm trying to avoid it's use in this edit? Chapter 7 is in progress, I started on it immediately after chapter 6, it's just the double-u breaking hinders my pace for the moment, but I'm trying to find a route around it, and I promise to get chapter 7 out as soon as I possibly can!

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Rukia pulled up to the front of her house and parked in behind her father's limousine, conveniently placing her in front of the front door to her home. Turning off the car and taking a deep breath she rested her head against the steering wheel for a moment to close her eyes and take a deep breath. With her luck, the principal had called her father today, again, and he was going to want to see her, again. He wouldn't be happy, not after she had told him she would keep out of trouble. And considering that she had said that yesterday, he would not be happy at all.

Taking a deep breath again and collecting her things, Rukia opened the door to her car and stepped out slowly, her backpack slung over her shoulder. She half expected Yoshinada to be waiting for her at the door, ready to tell her that her father was waiting for her, but when she turned to look, the door was open and nobody was there. That's when she heard it, the sound that she really didn't want to hear right now. It wasn't Ichigo's annoying growl, no, that would have been welcomed right about now. This was much, much worse.

"I got a call from the principal today."

"_Oh shit ..." _was all Rukia could think right now. It was coming from right next to her, so she turned slowly to face her father, composing herself and shedding all her former self as Rukia Shirafune once again. Stepping away from her car she closed the door and drained all expression from her face, giving the outward appearance of a calm and stoic person. Internally however, she was slapping herself over and over again, shouting about what an idiot she was for getting herself involved. She should have just let the stupid strawberry man get expelled, and then she could go about her life without any issues. But she hadn't, and now there were issues, many of them.

"It seems you were eavesdropping on the principal's today." Her father continued in that calm, collected tone of voice. His face and outward appearance, as always, was stoic and stern, like he was about to deliver a harsh punishment. Rukia readied herself for whatever may come and stood as straight as she could with her head held high. But to Rukia's surprise, her father's shoulders slumped and he let out a deep breath as his posture relaxed, his eyes seeming to lose their stern edge as his face loosened its grip on his ever stern expression.

"It seems as if that habit has been passed down to my child, for that, I am sorry." Rukia blinked. She didn't understand what had just happened, she only knew that her father had somehow relaxed and not punished her for doing something that she got in trouble for. Then she remembered Unohana-sensei's words that afternoon.

"_I would like to remind you that eavesdropping is a nasty habit. You can ask your father about the repercussions sometime."_

It seemed that her father could elaborate on that statement, and Rukia wasn't about to let the opportunity pass itself up. Dropping her Kuchiki family status and returning to that normal High School persona, she looked up at her father's still calm face, he looked like he was smiling almost, as if lost in some distant memory when responsibilities burdened him.

"Father, Unohana-sensei said that you would understand the repercussions of eavesdropping. What did she mean?"

With that said, Byakuya Kuchiki looked up at his daughter, his eyes a bit wide in surprise, a look that Rukia had never seen on him before, and one that shocked her to the point of speechlessness. She quickly apologized for the question and tried to take it back when he raised his hand, shaking his head.

"No, don't apologize; it was a legitimate question, one that I will answer at a later time … when I feel you are ready to know. There is much about my past that I wish to keep there, especially regarding what Retsu is certainly referring to. All will be made clear in time. Until then, I am sure you have homework that needs to be done, so I suggest you head inside and get to work."

Rukia nodded and excused herself, heading into the house after making sure her car was locked. When she turned to look over her shoulder she saw her father still standing in the same place, looking off into the distance at his favorite cherry blossom tree, his face hidden from both the angle of his body and his long hair. Deciding to ignore it and get to work, she headed up to her room as quickly as she could. Once she was done, she had to make a call to Matsumoto to confirm their shopping trip during the weekend.

XxxxXXXxxxX

Ichigo Kurosaki slowly walked up to his front door, his backpack slung over his right shoulder and his left hand in his pocket. It had been a rather trying day, and he was tempted to not come home. He could go crash at Chad's house, but that would have worried his sister's, and he would have to deal with his dad sooner or later, it might as well be sooner. Staying at Chad's house after a day like this would only bring on a more relentless attack, and he really just wanted to eat his dinner, finish his homework and then get some sleep. Not the easiest thing to do, at least not in his home, but he'd manage. He always did.

Ichigo was tempted to use the side entrance to his home through the clinic that his father ran, but if he did then he'd probably end up being accused of not wanting to face his family, which would cause his father to go into even more fits, and the less fits he had, the better it was for the family's health. Isshin had already corrupted Yuzu a bit, but Karin was on the breaking point, he could tell. She was young, but just like her big brother. Taking a deep breath, Ichigo opened his eyes and reached out to open the front door, only to have it yanked open before his hand got to the doorknob and being forced to duck under a kick aimed straight at his face.

Without thinking about how to react, Ichigo trusted his instinct and just acted, pulling his hand out of his pocket and letting his backpack fall to the floor, Ichigo grabbed onto his father's leg and stood up while stepping forward, throwing the old man off balance and sending him onto his back. But Ichigo couldn't take in his victory very quickly without his father kicking out at him with his other leg. Ichigo didn't have time to dodge before it hit him in the stomach, hard, sending him back a couple of steps down the walkway.

Recovering from the kick, Ichigo stood up straight and readied himself for his dad's next attack, only to see Isshin standing in the doorway with his fists on his hips and a triumphant smile on his face making Ichigo groan in annoyance.

"HAHA! Good takedown my son, but you must be ready for all types of attacks! You forgot I had a second leg, and there was your downfall!"

"Shut the hell up old man!"

"Though I must say your reaction to my sneak attack was rather impressive, you're getting faster, though not as fast as me!"

"I said shut the hell up!" And with that, Ichigo charged again, swinging a right punch at his father's head, only to have his vision be blinded by a big, brown blot in front of him. Isshin kicked the backpack at his son, blocking out Ichigo's vision and making the younger, orange haired man curse at his own stupidity in forgetting that his bag had been there for his father to use. With his punch missing its target, Ichigo stumbled awkwardly inside with his arm stretched out in front of him, and his fathers arms wrapped around his torso to hold the younger man in place. In this position, Ichigo couldn't do much more than squirm against his father's grip, which is what he did, trying to find a way out, but as usual Isshin's grip was next to flawless.

"I heard you got in trouble for fighting again today." Came the calm voice of Karin from the family table in the other room. She could tell her brother was home from the sounds coming from the front door, her father's yelling had made it perfectly obvious. Ichigo growled and thrust his head back hard against his father's face, making his grip slacken and letting Ichigo get loose, spin around and sweep the older man's feet out from under him, taking him down to the floor. Ichigo gave his father a few good kicks to the stomach for good measure, getting a shaky thumbs up from his father as response as the orange-haired teen gathered up his bag and walked into the dining room to greet his sisters.

"Yeah, a couple of deadbeats decided they wanted to show me who was boss."

"Did they win?" Karin asked, to which Ichigo responded with a scoff, getting a grin from his sister as Yuzu scrambled into the dining room to hug her brother before running off to the front door to check on their dad.

"He's fine Yuzu!" Ichigo called out to her, turning to face Karin as he set his backpack down in an empty chair. "How was your day?"

"Same as usual. You going to eat with your family tonight or are you going to go sulk in your room again?"

"Yes, a good question my daughter! You took the words right of my mouth!" Isshin yelled as he walked into the room, his arm around Yuzu's shoulder for support. Ichigo growled at the sound of his dad's voice but resisted the urge to turn around and beat the old man again. Instead Karin threw a spoon at him, hitting the old man square in the face, making Ichigo chuckle and give his sister a high-five. Both actions got the siblings a disapproving look from Yuzu who had to comfort her father to keep him from throwing too bad of a fit. It appeared to work as the worst that happened was that he stood in front of Masaki's poster, crying, telling her about how much their children hated him and how he went wrong. Ichigo tuned it out and went back to talking to Karin while he waited for dinner to be served.

It only took a few minutes for Yuzu to put the food on the table and everyone to be seated together, eating quietly, and peacefully, until Isshin had to start talking.

"Karin was right though, about you fighting. While you may have won, which I applaud you for my son, you've learned well, we've had this discussion, especially since it concerns your unique issue."

"I know what it means dad; you don't have to remind me."

"Did it show up during the fight?" His father asked in a serious tone without the usual free spirited nature of his voice. Ichigo stopped eating as all eyes turned to him, but he refused to look up, instead he just focused on his plate, his fork pushing around the bits of meat that were just laying there. He took a deep breath and nodded once.

"Yeah … it did. Or at least, it started to, for a brief moment. But then I got the feeling that someone was watching me, and that feeling let me hold it off. I almost lost control, if it wasn't for that feeling, I don't know what I would have done."

Isshin stayed silent but kept eating, thinking things over before nodding. He decided to let the subject drop and let his family get back to their dinner in peace. It was quiet in the Kurosaki household for the first time since Masaki had died all those years ago, but it wasn't the mourning silence that was so prevalent then, it was a contented quiet, when all the family was gathered and just happy to be together. Before long, dinner was finished and everyone went their separate ways. Karin went into the living room to watch TV, Yuzu cleared the table and set to cleaning, as she usually did, Isshin went through the side door to the house into the clinic to do some unfinished paperwork and Ichigo went up into his room to start on his homework.

Ichigo sat at his desk and got to work in the quiet, enjoying the silence of the night. The silence, though odd, was certainly welcome right now, as it let Ichigo focus on his work and then when he was done, let his mind wander to visions of the raven haired woman that haunted him day and night for the past two days. He couldn't get her out of his head, and he couldn't decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Whatever it was, he wasn't going to let it get him down too much, he would just enjoy the vision of her in his mind for as long as possible before he needed to sleep.

It seemed like hours of daydreaming before he was having trouble keeping his eyes open. Getting up from his desk and turning off the lights in his room, Ichigo climbed into bed and laid on his back, looking up at the ceiling, visions of that woman running around in his mind as his eyes started to close. He was right about to drift off to sleep when his eyes darted open.

"Shit!" He yelled into his room. Karin opened his door and stuck her head in, asking what was wrong, but Ichigo ignored her and brought a hand up to his forehead as he smiled to himself, his expression softening.

"I forgot to find out her name."

XxxxXXXxxxX

_**The Next Day…**_

Tatsuki Arisawa pulled up to the school parking lot and put her car in her favorite spot, scanning the mostly empty lot for any sign of her friends. Orihime wasn't in her car, again, and it worried her. She couldn't help but wonder who this mysterious stranger was that was giving her friend a lift to school. But for the moment, Tatsuki tried not to dwell on it too much, just thinking about it made her jealous, and she kept telling herself that being jealous was not in her character, she got on with life and just kept moving forward. It was difficult, but that's what you did.

Taking a deep breath and gathering up her things, Tatsuki stepped out of her car and left it running to keep the radio going so she could listen to some music while she waited for her friends to show up. She pulled out a couple of her books and a notepad and started to finish up her homework when she heard someone call her name behind her. She didn't turn around the first few times until the voice was right behind her.

"Oi, Tatsuki." It was male, and it growled quite a bit, but was fluid. Tatsuki grinned as recognition came over her, She didn't have to turn around to know who was behind her, so she just kept working as Ichigo propped himself up against her car, his hands in his pockets. "It's good to see you again."

"Yeah. How have you been?"

"As good as I can be after …" He didn't have to finish his sentence, Tatsuki knew what he meant. She sighed, but didn't turn away from her homework, nodding once so he knew that she heard him. "How have you been?"

"Been better, today isn't starting out like I would like it to, but then again most days are like that. You just make do with what you're given." She turned to look over her shoulder, smiling. "No offense."

"None taken, it was a long time ago, I've moved on. Look, I came over for two reasons; one is talk about your martial arts club."

"If you want in you're going to have to go through the try-outs like everyone else, no special treatment."

"Fair enough, the next thing is-"

"If you want me to tell you her name you're out of luck. Ask her yourself."

Ichigo growled and Tatsuki heard a thump against the hood of her car, no doubt Ichigo's thick skull hitting the hood.

"I've tried that," he said, his voice a bit muffled as he spoke into the roof of the vehicle, "She keeps ignoring me."

"Thought you didn't want to be around anyone here? Isn't that what you told Kaien?"

"That's what she said … but for some reason, she keeps pulling me in, I can't resist. I've got to know her name."

Tatsuki sighed and put her pen down on her notepad, turning around to face her old friend.

"Man you are a sad sight, hung up over a girl that you can't even get to talk to you without an insult flying around. Man up or shut up."

Ichigo was silent for a moment, his head resting against the red hood of Tatsuki's car as he thought over what she said. She was right, either he had to get over his attitude and actually work at this, or he had to leave her alone. Shutting up would be impossible, whenever the Midget was near him, Ichigo couldn't help but talk. So manning up was the next best option, and the only real one he could choose. Taking his head off the hood of his old friend's car he smiled and patted Tatsuki's shoulder as he walked away, moving toward the front of the school. Tatsuki scoffed and went back to work.

"Typical."

"What's typical?" Tatsuki looked over her shoulder and waved at Renji as he moved up behind her.

"Nothing, just orange man over there being himself."

"Orange man? Isn't he supposed to be a strawberry or something?"

"Hell if I know, you pay attention when Rukia is ranting about the people she loves?"

"Not most of the time, I had to listen to it with Hitsugaya, don't want to relive it."

"Heh, I can understand that. Least you weren't around for when she was really getting into Kaien. Now that was scary."

"At least she's found someone better; Kaien won't leave Miyako for her."

"Yeah, but Rukia can hope … at least until something happens."

"What will you do when it does happen?"

Tatsuki thought for a moment, stopping her work as she tapped the pen against the paper. That was an interesting question; nobody had asked her that before. Thinking about it now, she had to wonder what she would do when Kaien rejected Rukia. Would she hurt Kaien for breaking her friend's heart or would she be the pillar of strength for Rukia to lean on? In response to the question, Tatsuki just shrugged and got back to work.

"Dunno, we'll see when it happens. What about you?"

"Same." It was all Renji said before going silent and sitting down in the back seat of Tatsuki's car to catch a bit of sleep while listening to the music. It wasn't long before Matsumoto and Hitsugaya showed up, then Orihime, followed shortly by Rukia in her gleaming white Nissan. From their distance away, Rukia's friends could see her open her door, get out and do a casual look around, passing right by them in her scan of the area before closing her door and quickly making her way to her friends. No one doubted that she was looking for any sign of orange so that she could avoid it.

Rukia greeted her friends and they all said hi back, but Tatsuki was the only one wearing a smirk that was scary.

"Why are you smirking like that?" Rukia asked right before the bell went off. As the ring sounded in the parking lot, the group started to move towards the school entrance, but Tatsuki and Rukia stood in place for a moment, Rukia waiting for an explanation to Tatsuki's smirk.

"You're going to have one hell of a long day."


	7. Chapter 7

AN: Chapter 7, finally, after much demand. Stupid double-u key breaking and slowing me down, otherwise this would have been out so much sooner. As of my last check, this chapter is 17 pages long, so I hope you guys enjoy it!

Disclaimer: NO OWNY TEH BLEACH … I wish I did.

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_**First Period, Biology…**_

Rukia didn't have time to wonder what Tatsuki meant by what she said before she had to rush off to her locker to pick up her books and then hurry off to Biology. She barely opened the door and stepped inside when the closing bell went off and made her take her seat, setting her bag on the table and covering her ears for the Keigo and Mizuiro show. She didn't even hear Ichigo's greeting as the PA opened up with Keigo yelling into it.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING EVERYONE! I am very sorry that you did not get to hear my lovely voice in the morning yesterday, but I assure you all that I am feeling two-hundred percent better today and ready to continue the morning announcements! Now, now pretty ladies, I know what you're probably saying, 'But Keigo, we don't know if we can handle that much smooth talking!' Well ladies, I assure you all … you can!"

"Keigo, if you don't calm down, Unohana-sensei will have to come in here and make you quiet down."

"Ah, but Mizuiro, if she does that then she is only gracing us with her presence! I wouldn't mind being graced with the appearance of such a beauty!"

"Keigo, you're doing it again."

"Doing what my good man?"

"Fawning."

"Bah, it's not fawning, it's just admiration. You should understand that as someone who likes older women!"

"Fawning and admiring are two different things Keigo."

Keigo and Mizuiro continued to banter back and forth over the difference between fawning and admiring for the rest of the morning announcements. Rukia tuned it out for the moment, choosing to draw on her sketchpad instead. She could listen to the Keigo and Mizuiro show every day for the next couple of years and not get bored, but right now she had something in her mind that she needed to get out.

That's when she heard it. Keigo's yelling had shut the sound out, but it was back. The most annoying sound in the world was at it again.

"Hey midget."

"_God does he __**ever**__shut up?" _Was all Rukia wondered to herself as she tried to keep working. It wasn't easy; it never was when the little annoying strawberry man was sitting next to her trying to talk to her.

"_No, that's not right, he's not little, he's tall … and now that I think about it he's not all that annoying either, he can actually be rather charming when he's not pestering me constantly. Wait, what? I did not just think that!"_

Growling at herself for those thoughts, she just kept working, ignoring the chuckle that came from the man next to her.

"What's the matter midget? Mess up your drawing?"

That was strike two. She turned in her seat and hit the strawberry hard in the arm, whispering menacingly.

"Don't call me midget strawberry!"

"Hard to call you anything else when I don't know your name."

There it was again, that same phrase from yesterday. Ignoring the little voice in the back of her head that told her that he made a good point, Rukia tried to get back to work drawing. Not the easiest thing to do since the strawberry kept staring at her as she tried to work. Finally, not able to stand that he was staring at her so intently anymore; she turned to face him and snapped.

"What is so interesting?"

"You're wearing your hair up." It was all he said. Rukia had forgot that she was wearing her hair in a ponytail, it just felt like the right thing to do this morning and she wasn't going to go against her feeling. She even got a few compliments from her friends when she greeted them in the parking lot.

"Got a problem?" She asked a bit venomously. Ichigo shook his head, but kept staring at her.

"Not really, I like it, brings out your eyes. Though I preferred it when your hair was down, made you look prettier." And with that said, he turned away to face the front of the class. Now it was Rukia's turn to stare, her eyes wide and her mouth open. Did he just compliment her? No, he couldn't have, the stupid strawberry was rude and incapable of complimenting a person. It just couldn't happen, it was impossible, and yet whenever she replayed the memory in her head, she couldn't find the insult. Not in his tone of voice on the look in his eyes, nor in his body language. Everything suggested it was a compliment.

"_He is so confusing!"_

_**Second Period, History…**_

Rukia fiddled with her pencil as she tried to get the last of the image out of her head and onto the paper in front of her. Old Man Yamamoto was sitting behind his desk watching the students work, but he didn't look too interested in their other activities. When he needed to be, Yamamoto-sensei could be very strict, but he always had a much softer side, much like Unohana-sensei. The students mostly worked in silence; Yamamoto-sensei was a better person to be around than Barragan-sensei that was for sure, as he would let his students talk as long as they did it quietly. His only real rule was that no phones were allowed during class, and people usually followed that rule.

Rukia growled at herself again and erased part of the image she was drawing for the thousandth time before going back to it. Next to her, a shadow crept across the page she was working on, blocking her light. She was about to tell the person to move when she heard that chuckle, that disgustingly annoying chuckle. Her growl grew louder as she slowly turned to face the stupid strawberry man.

"What now?" She whispered.

"Can't get me off your brain can you midget?"

"What are you talking about?" In response, all Ichigo did was point at the picture she was drawing. Now that she had a free moment because of the distraction, Rukia took a look at the picture she was drawing. It was her, well, a more miniature version of her, holding on tightly to a strawberry and hugging it close with a possessive look on her face. Rukia had to fight the blush that was creeping across her face as Ichigo chuckled again.

"You know, they say that art is a window into our subconscious."

"Shut up."

"You wish."

Rukia didn't say anything. Instead she tore the paper from her sketch pad and crumpled it up, making a note to ask Yamamoto-sensei for a lighter that kept around so she could burn the picture.

"_This can't get any worse."_

_**Break, between second and third period…**_

Rukia stood behind the crowd that had gathered at her locker, waiting for a path to clear so she could grab new books and put old ones away. It wasn't easy as the massive group of people didn't want to budge. She had taken to naming this particular group of people the "Elephant Parade" because they were just as loud and just as big. She was too short to be noticed by the group of people that gathered around her locker, which usually made it hard to command their attention and get them to go away. As if the picture in history and the annoying confusion that the strawberry had her swimming in during biology wasn't bad enough, the Elephant Parade was out in force.

Rukia was about to turn around and leave so she could come back later when the parade had cleared, she may have been cutting it close to being late, but she'd risk it so she didn't have to deal with the people. But then they started to clear off, all of them, as if someone was forcing them apart with huge hands. Using this opportunity, Rukia moved through the crowd to her locker, ignoring the murmurs behind her until she had grabbed her things.

Turning to see what everyone was talking about she saw him, the object of her annoyance and frustration. The Great Strawberry was walking down the hall with his hands in his pockets and backpack slung over his shoulder, slowly making his way past the people that were talking about him. Rukia didn't want to see him or talk to him, so she tried to hurry with collecting her things. Gym clothes for PE, and books for math stuffed into her back, Rukia quickly closed her locker door and turned to disappear into the crowd, only to run into something big.

She looked up slowly after apologizing only to take it back when she saw Ichigo standing above her, smirking.

"What's the rush midget? You look like you want to avoid something."

"Don't call me midget!" She yelled and kicked him hard in the shin, ignoring the pain in her foot as she watched him recoil a bit in pain. The crowd gasped collectively at the hit and seemed to recoil a bit, expecting something. That's when Rukia heard the whispers.

"She shouldn't have done that … hospitalized people … be lucky if he doesn't kill her …"

Rukia did her best to ignore the whispers as Ichigo stood up again and walked over to her, his smirk still on his face as he recovered.

"_Damn, he's got some stamina. Wait, what? Shut up stupid voice!"_

She was seething in a mixture of frustration, annoyance and confusion when his shadow covered her again. There it was again, that smirk, that annoyingly attractive smirk. Wait, attractive? NO! It was just annoying!

"_STUPID VOICE SHUT UP!"_

"You really need to tell me where you hide all that strength short stuff, you're like a poodle." That comment made Rukia's eye twitch.

"A poodle?"

"Yeah, you're little, but you're mean." Rukia's eye twitched again and this time she hit him in the stomach, hard, making him recoil and take a few steps back. Again the crowd was stunned, expecting the orange-haired young man to attack the little raven haired girl. But the strike never came; instead he stood up tall and smirked even more, if that was possible.

"You know, they say you hurt the one you love. I just didn't think it was a physical pain."

Rukia growled and was about to throw another punch when her wrist was caught by something. She turned to look back at what had stopped her and almost dropped in fear. If Unohana-sensei was the scariest thing in school on a bad day, then on every day the scariest thing in school was Zaraki-sensei. And here he was, standing behind her, holding onto her wrist tightly, staring down at her with that creepy eye patch.

"Oi, what are the rules about fighting in school?"

"Oh, oh, Kenny, I know! Pick me!" The second voice was chirpy and light, and giggled a lot. That's when she saw the pink haired child hop up onto the giant's shoulder and sit there with a smile wider than her face.

"Alright, then what are the rules about fighting Yachiru?"

"Not to fight unless it's with you or in the ring!"

"That's right. So what are you two doing?"

"They look like they were fighting Kenny!"

"Stupid, I wasn't asking you."

"Sorry Kenny!" Rukia stared up at the mountain that was now in front of her, a little bit afraid of the appearance of the larger man. Taking a slow breath and gulping, Rukia relaxed her hand out of the fist it was in and nodded.

"He was insulting me Zaraki-sensei, and I lost my cool. I'm sorry, it won't happen again." Zaraki nodded and let go of Rukia's wrist. She looked around and noticed that the crowd had gone somewhere else, but Ichigo was still standing there, hands in his pockets and a serious look on his face as he stared up at Kenpachi. Rukia looked around to see if anyone else was nearby, finding no sign of Ikkaku and Yumichika nearby, which she found odd.

"Good to see you."

"You too Kenpachi … it's been a while. How have you been?"

"Waiting for a real challenge, you?"

"Trying to get my things and avoid the wrath of an angry midget. Do you mind?"

Rukia turned around to see Ichigo and Kenpachi standing face to face, staring into each other's eyes. Rukia moved to the side to get a better look at the two men and noticed Kenpachi grinning widely. They were both standing tall, hands at their sides in a relaxed state as they stared at one another; Rukia thought it was like watching a standoff between lions or wolves.

"Who have you got for gym Kurosaki? I sure as hell haven't seen you in any of my classes."

"Shihoin-sensei."

"Pfft, that soft ass teacher is going to ruin you, I'll have to see if I can get you into my class, it'd be better for you."

"Thanks for the thought Kenpachi, but I like it just fine in her class. I need my energy to be saved up when I get home."

"Bah, you're getting soft Ichigo, how are you ever going to be ready for our rematch with that attitude."

"I told you, I don't want a rematch, I'm fine with the outcome of last time."

"Like hell you are, I've gotten stronger since then, and we'll see what will happen next time. I'll see you around Kurosaki." Kenpachi bumped up against Ichigo's shoulder while Yachiru started chanting the word "rematch" over and over, waving to Ichigo as she left with Zaraki-sensei. Ichigo reached into his bag and pulled out a stick of chocolate, throwing it to Yachiru and silencing her rather quickly before he turned around to face Rukia, who had a look of confusion on her face.

"What midget?"

"What was that all about?" She asked, forgetting his use of that dreaded word for the moment. He just shrugged and went on walking, closing his eyes as he made his way to the gym.

"It was nothing, long story. You're going to be late if you don't keep up." Rukia looked up at the clock and realized that the clock had sounded sometime during Ichigo's conversation with Zaraki and she hadn't heard it. Cursing herself she started to run towards the gym when Ichigo stopped her, resting his hand on her shoulder.

"Relax; if you stick with me I can keep you out of trouble for this, Shihoin-sensei is pretty easy going if you know what to say."

Rukia blinked up at him in confusion. Was he helping her?

"Why are you helping me?" She asked him. She didn't realize it was the same question that he had asked her yesterday until after she had said it. Ichigo just grinned and shrugged, staying silent as he kept walking towards the gym with Rukia next to him.

"It seemed like the right thing to do."

_**Third Period, PE...**_

Rukia was amazed. Ichigo had managed to talk Shihoin-sensei out of marking them as tardy because of the incident in the hall with Zaraki-sensei. How he had managed to do it, she figured she'd never know, all that she did know was that the score was even now. Rukia ran around the gym floor for the tenth time as part of the morning routine for the class, listening to Shihoin-sensei urge her students on.

"C'mon, pick up the pace. The faster you move, the faster you can be done and get to your free time. Work it, work it, c'mon faster."

Rukia breathed a sigh of relief that she had gotten this class and not Zaraki-sensei's, since her freshman year she had heard stories of the differences between the teachers. Where Shihoin-sensei was mostly about speed and skill, Zaraki-sensei was about brute force and strength. Rukia had heard that Zaraki-sensei made everyone hit the weights for the duration of the class, even leading sparring matches in the middle of the gym against students so they could get stronger. While Unohana-sensei frowned at the activity going on during Kenpachi's PE classes, she made no move to stop it, recognizing his arguments that it was good for the students to work out their aggression in a moderated environment rather than somewhere else where a person could get seriously hurt.

But even with all that, Rukia would have still preferred the type of work-out that Shihoin-sensei was good at giving people. She had four more laps to go and was in the middle of the group of people, but when she looked over to see who was closest to being finished; her eyes went wide, again. Ichigo was running up to where she was moving at a steady pace, right behind Sui-feng. He ran right past Rukia and reached the finish line in a matter of seconds, stopping his run and moving off to the side to go and take a seat. He didn't appear to be out of breath, or even sweating, as if what he just did was nothing.

This was the first time Rukia had seen him really run during the class. The first day he was there, he spent most of his time talking to Shihoin-sensei and watching the other students work out so he could prepare himself for what he was going to face. The second day had been conditioning, not running like today, but still a rather decent workout for the class, and even then he hadn't appeared to be phased by the training. But now, Rukia couldn't believe what she was seeing, Ichigo was just sitting there taking slow breaths with a relaxed expression, as if he hadn't just run fourteen laps around the twenty yard gym. Sui-feng had the same look on her face as she stood next to Yoruichi, but it was expected of her, she had been running like that for a very long time.

"C'mon people, move it. I know you can do better."

Rukia could move faster, she knew she could, but she didn't want to get noticed any more than she already had. The stupid strawberry was to blame for her current spotlight attention. Rukia sighed and shook any thoughts she had of him out of her head, choosing to keep running at a steady pace instead of speeding up to finish faster. She'd be done soon enough, and she didn't need to hurry up, four laps would do her good. She listened to Yoruichi cheer on her students with enthusiasm, hoping to get them to run faster. Sui-feng stood at her side, staring down anyone who dared to look at the teacher for too long. People thought that the younger woman had a bit of a crush on the teacher, but nobody would question her about it. If Tatsuki was the best tournament fighter in the school, Sui-feng was the best brawler outside of the ring; she even gave Tatsuki trouble once or twice.

Rukia almost shivered at the memory of the two women fighting, it was brutal fight that ended brutally, with both women having to go to the hospital for broken bone treatment. It wasn't a pleasant memory, but Tatsuki and Sui-feng had a sort of friendly rivalry afterwards, taking whatever chances they could to taunt one another. Shihoin-sensei's whistle blowing signaled the end of the exercise and Rukia stopped running, moving over to the wall and leaning back against it to catch her breath. She rested her head against the cool surface and closed her eyes, taking slow, deep breaths.

"Alright, everyone cool off and take a breather, then get to relaxing and doing whatever. Tomorrow is pool exercises."

Rukia smiled, she loved the pool, swimming always helped her take her mind off of things. She supposed it helped that once she was under water she couldn't really hear anything in the outside world; it'd be perfect to drown out the sound of Ichigo's annoying voice. When Rukia opened her eyes and turned around she caught Yoruichi and Sui-feng in the middle of an argument, possibly about the choice of exercise location. Yoruichi loved the pool too, mostly because she got to tease all the boys with her figure and make all the girls jealous, she called it a good motivator, everyone else called it a distraction, except for Sui-feng, she called it troublesome and not fit for someone of Yoruichi's character.

Closing her eyes again and losing herself in her daydreams of Kaien, Rukia was happy for the solitude, until Kaien started to speak. The problem wasn't so much the fact that he was speaking, but whenever he did, it wasn't his voice.

"Oi, midget, you going to be alright? You look winded."

Opening her eyes, Rukia glared at the real voice behind her daydream version of Kaien.

"I'm fine, and don't call me midget." Rukia said as she closed her eyes.

"You sure you're alright? You didn't attack me or anything after I called you the dreaded "M" word."

"Yes, I'm sure I'm fine. Now please, go away before I do get violent."

"I would, but you're standing over my backpack." Rukia opened her eyes again to find Ichigo smirking and pointing at her feet. Turning to look down she saw a brown bag lying on the floor underneath her and sighed. Perfect, first the picture, now the backpack. It must seem like she was hovering or trying to talk to him when she was really trying to avoid him. She moved to the side and started to walk away when his voice caught her attention.

"So tomorrow's pool day huh? Does that mean I get to see you in a bathing suit?"

Rukia scoffed and turned around to face the strawberry.

"You wish, the guys and girls swim separately from each other. Only woman you're going to be seeing in a swimsuit is Shihoin-sensei."

Ichigo just grinned as he went through some of the things in his backpack.

"Oh well, guess I'm just going to have to try and sneak a peak when you come out of the changing room."

"Good luck with that freak, the last person who tried ended up in the hospital. Sui-feng is not someone you want to mess with."

Ichigo looked over his shoulder at said woman and looked her over, before shrugging and going back to what he was doing.

"I could beat her."

Rukia scoffed at that and turned to leave again when the annoying orange-headed menace spoke again.

"You know, I never got your name, and your friends won't tell me, even the teachers won't tell me. They just keep saying to ask you, but it gets harder every day. If you don't tell me soon, I'm just going to have to assume your name is Midget Shirafune."

He frowned as he said her last name and shook his head. Deciding not to say anything about it, Rukia sighed and relaxed her stance, thinking over how she was going to tell him who she was. Then it occurred to her how she would do it, grinning she turned around and started to walk away, calling over her shoulder.

"You'll find out soon Ichigo."

Ichigo grinned, it was the first time he had said his name directly to him and without any sort of person between them. Something about the way she said it sent a bit of a shiver down his spine, it was comforting.

_**Fourth period, Math…**_

Rukia sat in the chemistry lab at her table, listening to her Kukaku go off about a mathematic formula that would be important for them to memorize. As she listened to Kukaku talk, her thoughts trailed to Kaien and the barbeque that was coming up in a few weeks. She had plans to go shopping with Matsumoto during the weekend for something to wear to the gathering, and she hoped that she'd be able to confess to Kaien finally. But for now, she was working on two things, a picture for Ichigo to tell him her name, and trying to take notes and keep up with Kukaku's train of thought, not a very easy task to accomplish. A knock on the door to the lab got everyone to put their pencils down and see what the noise was for.

When the door opened, Yamamoto-sensei asked Kukaku to step outside, apparently to discuss something regarding the chemistry experiment she was setting up. Yamamoto-sensei was a well known Pyromaniac, the amount of things he had to light on fire was astounding, but at times it would come in handy. The only reason he was allowed to keep most of the flammable objects he had was because he would occasionally loan things out to the chemistry lab for experiments that required minor explosives. Kukaku was brilliant with explosives, but also being the fireworks business made her supplies short from time to time, and that's where she turned to Yamamoto-sensei.

When Kukaku closed the door behind her, the class buzzed immediately into quiet conversation. Rukia didn't join in, as the only person she had to talk to was the annoying strawberry idiot sitting next to her. She'd rather become mute than talk to him again. If she could just avoid talking to him for the rest of the day, she'd be very happy. But things weren't going to be that easy, they never were.

"What are you working on short cake?"

"Nothing that concerns you stupid, now shut up and leave me alone." It wasn't true, but Rukia hoped it would get him to shut up. It didn't.

"Oh really now? You know, the last piece of art you were working on involved me, so how am I supposed to know what this one involves?"

Rukia growled at the memory of the crumpled paper she had in her pocket. She still hadn't burned it, between getting caught in a hallway conversation between Ichigo and Zaraki-sensei and all her classes, she hadn't had a chance to go speak with Yamamoto-sensei. She decided to take care of it during lunch. But for now, she was going to try to ignore the annoying orange-haired man sitting next to her. It wasn't an easy task, he made it incredibly hard to be ignored, what with all the talking and staring that he was doing. Rukia could feel Ichigo's eyes boring into the back of her head, as if he was staring into her thoughts, which were currently on kicking him in the face repeatedly so she could get the image of his eyes out of her head.

Finally unable to take the staring, Rukia growled and clenched her pencil tightly in her hand, ready to stab Ichigo, just in case. Snapping her head to the side she glared at the man next to her and had to force herself to keep from shouting.

"What Strawberry? Why do you keep staring at me? Stop it! It's freaking creepy!"

"You let your hair down."

Rukia blinked at that statement and absentmindedly brought a hand up to her head to feel around. She had forgotten she let her hair down when she was changing into her regular school clothes after PE. She didn't remember why exactly she had left her hair down, just that she had. She also knew that it had nothing to do with what Ichigo told her during Biology, but it didn't stop her from blushing a bit as the memory came back to her.

Quickly looking away before he noticed the slightly red tint to her cheeks, Rukia went back to work on the picture in front of her, hoping that her hair covered her face. But when she looked over to see if he was still staring at her, which he was, she caught a hint of a grin on his face.

"Were you blushing midget?"

She chose to ignore that comment and keep working, though it was hard with him staring at her like he was. When Kukaku walked back into the room, Rukia looked up at the clock to see what time it was. The big, glowing, red numbers on the large digital clock in the room glared at her with what she could only describe as hatred as they marked the time at 11:45. It was only fourth period, only fifteen minutes until lunch and the halfway mark until school got out. But to Rukia, it felt as if a whole year had passed in agonizing slowness, and she suspected it had something to do with the Strawberry man sitting next to her.

"_If only I could control time, I'd be able to end this hellish day already!"_

_**Lunch, mid-day…**_

Rukia sat with her friends at their usual spot under the shady tree. Renji was talking with Tatsuki quietly, Hitsugaya and Matsumoto were attempting to catch a quick nap together, Orihime was sitting next to Tatsuki, but didn't appear to be listening to what her two friends were discussing, appearing to be in her own little world. Rukia had the drawing she was trying to get done in front of her, staring at the barely visible lines waiting to be filled out. Chewing on her eraser in thought for a moment, Rukia finally got back to work, hoping to have it done by the time school got out. It was an easy thing to do if she didn't have any more distractions keeping her from working, though the probability of distractions was really high due to the strawberry man constantly being near her. She growled softly at the mere thought of him and that annoying smirk. He was beginning to creep into her mind more than Kaien, and that was not a good thing, especially since whenever he did pop up, Rukia would begin to imagine him in Kaien's place during her usual daydreams.

No matter how much she tried, she couldn't get him out of her head, and it was seriously starting to annoy the hell out of her. She shouldn't be thinking about him that way, not after three days, three long, agonizing days of him doing or saying something that would either confuse the hell out of her, or would cause her to break out into a serious anger fit. She didn't know anything about Ichigo other than that he was annoying and trying to get to know her name, constantly staring at her, talking to her, smirking at her. Those eyes kept showing up in her mind whenever she closed her eyes, those amber eyes staring at her, and while they stared, the rest of his face formed around. That annoyingly perfect smirk of his on his lips caused shivers to run down Rukia's spine.

But what she always seemed to come back to was his eyes, there was something about them. From the moment she had first seen them, actually seen them, his eyes had captivated her. She shivered to herself again before going back to growling. No, she was not going to go down this road, not ever again, she wouldn't allow it. Her growl grew louder as she snapped the tip of her pencil against the paper with the drawing she was working on. Frustrated, Rukia started to fish around in her bag for another pencil.

"Rukia, you're a great friend, but could you please stop growling? You're keeping me awake."

Rukia looked up at who was speaking only to see Toshiro grinning at her with that knowing grin he sometimes got. Rukia blinked and felt a few more sets of eyes on her and noticed Renji, Tatsuki and Orihime looking at her. Rukia sighed and drooped her shoulders a bit.

"Sorry Shiro, just a bit frustrated is all. I've got a lot on my mind."

"A lot? Are you sure it's not just one thing? Or rather, one person in particular?"

Rukia glared at Tatsuki as the brunette spoke, a grin on her face.

"You realize I'm going to send him to you when clubs open up right?"

"Go ahead; Martial Arts club could use Ichigo on the team." Tatsuki said with a shrug. "Besides, I don't find him nearly as annoying as you do."

"Speaking of Ichigo, you've been oddly quiet this afternoon Rukia." It was Matsumoto who spoke this time, her eyes still closed as she rested her head on Toshiro's shoulder. Rukia knew what her friend meant, she hadn't ranted about the Strawberry man to her friends all day, at least not yet. "Hasn't he been annoying your today?"

"Yeah, he has been, but I've been trying to deal with it on my own. It's not easy to do, but I don't want to bother you guys too much, especially since you look like you could use some sleep."

Matsumoto chuckled and opened her eyes a bit to look at her friend.

"Rukia, we're your friends, if you need to talk, we're here to listen. Shiro and I can sleep any time we feel like. So stop worrying about us and talk."

Rukia sighed and put her pencil down on the paper, giving them the events of the day so far. Even Renji, who normally would try to ignore drama like this by faking sleep, was listening. When she was done, Matsumoto was wide awake with a wide smile on her face, and Renji was grinning like a fool. Tatsuki and Toshiro seemed to be wearing the same expression: a knowing grin that seemed to speak to Rukia about a truth she hadn't realized yet, or already knew but wouldn't accept. Orihime was still apparently lost in her own world as she tried different combinations for her lunch.

"Well it's obvious he likes you. Are you going to tell him your name?" Matsumoto asked. Rukia held up the sheet of paper with her drawing on it as an answer. Rangiku giggled as she saw the paper in Rukia's hand. "How original and very romantic."

"Shut it, it's not romantic, I'm just getting tired of him pestering me constantly. I figured just telling him would be a bit anti-climactic, so drawing him something was the next best option."

"Sure."

"Be quiet Tatsuki; don't forget that I know your secret." Matsumoto perked up a bit at the mention of the secret and Tatsuki glared at Rukia, who was inwardly cursing herself at the slip of the tongue. She gave Tatsuki and apologetic look as Rangiku started to ask about the secret before Toshiro silenced her.

"Look, Rukia, take it from someone who's been in this situation before, the more you bottle everything up and try to control it, the more it's going to creep into your mind. Just accept your feelings and stop trying to deny them, and you'll feel a lot better."

"I don't feel anything for him other than annoyance and frustration, there's nothing else to feel."

"You say that now, but I give it at least a month before it all boils over and you start to lose control."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"I'm just being realistic." The bell rang, cutting the conversation short for the moment, making the group of friends gather up their things and head off to their next classes together. Renji was walking close behind Rukia and once they were in the hallways of the school, he leaned down to Rukia's ear and whispered to her.

"You should listen to Shiro." Rukia turned to look up at her friend.

"Why?"

"Because I told him the same thing about Matsumoto."

_**Fifth Period, Study Hall…**_

Rukia basked in the peace and quiet of the library. The one place she could find solitude away from the annoying Strawberry. The only remotely annoying thing that would happen in the library was when Kyoraku-sensei and Nanao would start arguing, though most of the time it was more comical than anything, and right now Rukia could tell that Nanao's danger sense was tingling. She was walking through the rows of bookshelves with a stiff posture, correcting her glasses a lot and constantly sneaking a peek at the door to the library from hidden positions to see if Kyoraku-sensei had walked in yet.

Rukia watched as Nanao picked up a particularly heavy book and gave it a couple of good swings against the air to test its weight before hugging it close to her chest and continuing to move around the library. She had to keep from laughing at the librarian, knowing full well that any sound right now would get her into trouble, and she wanted to avoid trouble as much as possible. Turning back to her drawing, Rukia got back to work, she was almost done with the lines and ready to start the shading when she heard footsteps coming up behind her.

Turning to look over her shoulder, Rukia caught sight of Ichigo walking down the aisle of books, scanning the shelves for something to read.

"_Damn, I thought I'd found a good hiding spot._"

Even as the thought passed through her mind, Rukia realized that Ichigo hadn't noticed her yet, and thanked whatever forgiving force was out there before getting back to work again. It was going fine until Ichigo stopped next to her table and started to look at the section of books rather intently.

"Anything good in this section midget?"

Rukia growled. So he _had_ noticed her, he just didn't make it obvious.

"_Sneaky bastard."_

Rukia kept her focus on her drawing, she needed to get it done before school ended, and with the rate that she was moving, it wouldn't be too hard.

"Not that I know of, I haven't memorized the library."

"Too bad, you've got a great selection of books here, better than most places."

"I hadn't noticed, I've usually been too busy to roam the shelves."

"That's a shame." He didn't say anything else as he reached up and grabbed a book off one the shelves, and when he turned around to look at her, Rukia could feel the grin on his face. "Probably don't roam the shelves because all the good books are out of your reach."

Rukia growled but kept herself from hitting him, instead focusing on her drawing. He just chuckled and leaned down a bit to whisper into her ear, sending shivers down Rukia's spine, shivers that she tried to suppress.

"You're getting better at ignoring me short cake, but it won't last forever." And with that, he walked away. Rukia watched him walk down the aisle and then turn around the corner and disappear to his own section. Normally, he would be sitting next to her, but Nanao was in a good mood today and let the students pick their own spots. The only reason they sat together was so that Nanao could keep an eye on everyone easily. Rukia shook her head to get rid of the shivers crawling down her spine at the memory of Ichigo's voice in her ear.

"_Stupid time needs to hurry up and end this day!"_

_**Sixth Period, English…**_

Rukia chuckled to herself as Kyoraku-sensei sat behind his desk, nursing a new black eye as he kept an eye on his students. They were supposed to be working on a writing assignment surrounding Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. Rukia, however, was working on her drawing. She was almost done, she just had to put a couple of final touches on the picture before she snuck it into Ichigo's backpack for him to find later.

Kyoraku-sensei didn't look too interested in his student's activities even though he was supposed to make sure they were staying on task, he seemed to be mumbling something about how cruel Nanao was to him. Rukia chuckled at the memory of Nanao beating Kyoraku-sensei over the head with her book, wielding it as if it were a sword. After a while, Shunsui had given up and left Nanao alone, though as he left the library, Rukia kept an eye on Nanao, watching her sigh and let her grip on her book relax, whispering something to herself before turning around and making her way back to the shelf where she had found her weapon. It gave Rukia an idea for a weapon she could use the next time Ichigo really started to get on her nerves.

As the Strawberry came into her thoughts, she turned and glanced over at him. He seemed to be rather focused on his assignment, writing swiftly with neat strokes. For once he wasn't staring at her or pestering her. It was a moment of pure peace and quiet and Rukia really enjoyed it, until the moment was disturbed.

"You know, a smart girl once told me that staring a person is creepy, right after she asked me what I found so interesting."

Ichigo didn't look up from his assignment, but he was grinning now as Rukia blushed a bit and looked away. How long had she been staring at him? She had no idea, but apparently it was long enough for Ichigo to notice and then throw back her statement from earlier today. Deciding not to retort, Rukia got back to work. It was a good choice too; Ichigo kept quiet through the rest of class as Rukia worked on her picture and tried to keep up taking notes.

When the bell rang, Rukia had put the final touches on her drawing and waited for Ichigo to not be paying attention. Her moment came when the orange-haired man turned to look off to the side for a moment because of something he heard. Taking the opportunity, Rukia leaned to her side and slipped the drawing into Ichigo's backpack before gathering her things up and making her way casually to her locker to get everything she'd need for her homework.

Once she had her things gathered, she made her way out to the parking lot, saying goodbye to her friends and driving home, breathing a sigh of relief as she got far away from the school and near her home. The day was finally over, and she could finally go home and relax and forget all about the idiot that sat next to her.

XxxxXXXxxxX

Rukia pulled up to the front of her house and gathered up her possessions before making her way through the front door. Greeting Yoshinada, Rukia made her way up to her room. Her father's car wasn't in the driveway which meant that he was still at work. Once in her room, Rukia started to change out of her school clothes, but when she started to take off her jeans, she heard a crinkling sound in one of the pockets. Doing a bit of an investigation, Rukia found the source of the noise: the drawing she had done during history. Rukia stared at it for a moment, wondering how it had managed to stay in her pocket. She must have forgot to get rid of during the chaos of the day, but now that it was right in front of her, in the solitude of her own home where no one could see her, Rukia couldn't gather up the courage to get rid of it.

XxxxXXXxxxX

Ichigo sat in his room, having managed to dodge his father's attacks. The day's events running through his mind as he sat at his desk. He was a bit confused at the things he had said to the midget and some of the things he had done for her, but they seemed right at the time, as if they were just meant to flow from him. He had decided to man up and try to work at whatever may be between him and the smaller girl, and that's what he felt like he was doing, though every time he talked to her it got harder and harder to form the right words, everything he wanted to say seemed to be wrong.

Ichigo sighed and reached down to his backpack, opening it up and pulling out one of his books, when he noticed a piece of paper in his hand. Setting his book down on his desk and turning the paper over he chuckled and smiled as he saw what was on it.

The midget was standing over Ichigo with a chair in her hands, apparently beating on the young man, as Ichigo lay cowering on the ground beneath her wrath, his hands held up defensively to try and block the blows that the angry short woman was raining down upon him. In little speech bubbles up in the corner of the page, Rukia was yelling at him.

"My name is Rukia, freak! Don't forget it!"

Ichigo grinned and pulled a few pins from his desk, setting up against the board in front of him so that he'd be able to see it whenever he was sitting down. What Ichigo didn't know is that across the city, a small, raven haired girl was pinning up a picture of her hugging a strawberry very possessively to her drawing board in her room after having colored it in. She had a smile on her face as she looked at the picture.

"Stupid Strawberry." She said, before turning around and making her way to her bed to get some sleep.


End file.
